Anya: Owner of Mystic Mermaid
by jumbochamploonrules
Summary: Based on the trilogy of Blue Dragon games. Anya was kidnapped by Nene and transformed to be partly robotic. Unbeknownst to Nene, however, is that she kept her memories and heart of who she was before. Wielding the Mystic Mermaid Shadow, she teams up with a trio from Talta Village to take Nene down once and for all. M for language, violence, and other adult stuff. Reviews Welcome!
1. Ch1: Escape Nene's Airship

**This fanfic is of the Blue Dragon trilogy of games.  
****Blue Dragon is owned by Akira Toriyama and all of its characters and settings are not my own.  
****I only own 1 OC in the form of Anya, owner of the Mermaid Shadow  
****With this out of the way, let us begin**

* * *

**Anya POV:**

It had been a long and arduous decade since I had been created by my master. Well, created is only half-true. I knew who I was prior to him kidnapping me all those years ago and no amount of programming my body could make me forget. My name was Anya, but my master always called me Android Model A, or AM-A for short. I kept playing the acting game while he started to try and find different suitors for his soul to gain power. But there was one factor he hadn't taken into account. I had power just as much as he did, only he didn't know it yet. And I knew my chance would come soon, as he had gotten some new prisoners in the form of three teenage children from Talta Village, where he sent one of his Stone Fish Robos to once a month to antagonize the villagers. They trio apparently sent the robot into a ravine and then hitched a ride on it to Nene's flying airship, which is where he, I, and his robot servant Szabo resided.

I waited for my chance to escape, and soon found it when he had called for Szabo to bring the prisoners to his throne. I asked him what I should do, and he simply responded to me, "I don't care what you do, just steer clear of my throne room for awhile," he said, his voice still incredibly raspy from the disease that riddled his depraved body.

"Of course, Master Nene," I said as he then warped himself to his throne room and I took the opportunity to escape. "Okay, time to use my powers... invisibility..." I said as I summoned my source of magical power, the Mystic Mermaid, from within me. The source of this magic? In my shadow, as it was for Nene and anyone he wished to build up his soul's power. I immediately went to the Mechat Loading docks, not stopping until I sensed that the trio had been sent plummeting to the waters below by Nene! "Oh no he doesn't," I frowned as I focused my magic once more on the trio and sent their bodies up back to the flying fortress and to the area that I was in, them soon emerging from one of the escape capsules in the same room I resided in.

"What the?! W-Who are you?" one of them asked, me seeing that she was a young adult woman of around 16 years with brown hair that partially covered her right eye, was held into a ponytail in the back by a ribbon, and she wore a long, black dress with black slip-on shoes and a yellow sash around her waist to hold the dress in place.

"I am not an enemy, if that is what you are thinking," I said with honesty as I bowed politely, much like I was taught to do back in my old life. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anya Sinda, and I wish to assist you escape from this place," I said to them as I looked to the left and saw that there were three light spheres. They were Nene's, sure, but given enough time and enough persistence, these three could very well use these light spheres to develop their own shadows. "In order for us all to escape this place, we'll need to use one of these flying Mechats. But they are useless without a power supply of magic. These light spheres will provide your group with that magic. All you must do is swallow them and you will gain unfathomable power," I explained to them.

"Why should we trust you? You obviously work for Nene, right?" asked what looked to be an 17 year old boy with wild brown hair on his head, wore a black shirt, red sash on his waist, yellow shorts, blue socks, and brown sheepskin boots on his feet.

"I don't expect you to trust me, nor do I care. I just want to go back home to my family. Nene abducted me a decade ago and forced me into becoming part robotic, much like his unlimited supply of robot servants. But he can't possibly destroy my memory, nor my powers. If you wish to see the power of these spheres, allow me to show you what they can grant you," I said as I stepped back and summoned my shadow, the group in awe as the mermaid appeared from my shadow and stood overtop of the group and myself.

"Oh my god! Y-Your shadow's a mermaid!" the wild kid exclaimed.

"These spheres will grant your shadows with incredible magic that can be augmented from experience using them. All you have to do is swallow them. We must hurry, though. Once Nene realizes I'm missing, he will set off the alarms," I said, the group then looking at each other and simply nodding their heads.

"If anything happens to us, prepare to be kicked in the shin," the wild kid said.

"Of course," I said as the trio then went to the spheres of light and swallowed them down. The process of the spheres entering their bodies making them enter a bit of pain before their powers exploded all at once. The wild child got the Blue Dragon, the female got the Fiery Phoenix and the final of the trio received the Guardian Minotaur. In terms of appearances, the third of the group looked to be the most tidy of the trio with a long suit of green and black on his body and neat, brown hair atop his head. He also had a pen and notebook on his side, kept in place with a satchel.

"Oh my god... you were right! Our shadows!" the female said with astonishment when her shadow then screeched loudly. Sadly, that screeching set off the alarms all over the place.

"Shit! We gotta go, now!" the wild kid exclaimed as I led them over to the Mechat and I took the steering part of it. "Do you know how to fly this thing?" the tidy one asked in worry.

"No clue. But then again, none of us do. Let's just hope I can land safely," I said with honesty as I then pushed the lever forward and the Mechat then flew off and out of the place in a flash, our group having escape Nene's clutches as I then saw that we were over the seas to the southwest of the western continent. And I soon gasped as I found that the thing didn't really have a brake feature, me panicking as I approached the ground rather too close for comfort, until, finally, we all crashed into the ground and the bottom of the Mechat started to skid heavily across the dirt and rocks until we finally stopped, right at the beginning of a canyon area called the Lot Wilderness.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

"You could've made the landing a bit softer, couldn't you?" I asked the woman named Anya after we left the flying device she called a Mechat and had our feet meet the ground once more.

"Apologies, but my Shadow's magic isn't really suited for soft landings. It's more for high defenses and protecting others from sudden death. My shadow, the Mystic Mermaid, is able to guard foes from being hurt and boasts high defense and power to match," Anya explained.

"I see... wait, we haven't even introduced ourselves yet, have we?" Kluke asked her with a smile.

"Not that I recall, no. What are your names? I only know that you are of Talta Village, but nothing other than that," Anya said.

"My name is Shu," I said with a smile.

"I'm Jiro," my smarter friend said with a bow.

"And I'm Kluke," said my female friend... damn, she was so cute... but I didn't really want to tell her that to her face. It'd just be rude.

"I can sense some conflicting feelings in your mind, Shu. Something about Kluke, correct?" Anya said, me gasping at that and Kluke looking at me with a smile.

"Um... n-no, i-it's nothing, hehe," I said anxiously, trying to back out of any kind of explanation.

"Trust me, Shu. I can sense emotions and I can see that you have nothing but warmth in your heart towards Kluke," Anya said, me blushing heavily at that as Kluke giggled at that.

"C-Can you just... ugh!" I groaned at that.

"Don't worry, Shu. We can sort it out after we get back to the village... but where are we anyways?" Kluke asked, me wondering that as well.

"We are currently in the Lot Wilderness, which is to the west of the mountains separating us from Talta Village. I say we start moving out through the Wilderness effective immediately before Nene gets wise to our location. He's not going to be pleased to see me teaming up with people that are against him," Anya said as she proceeded to walk down the road to the southeast and I looked at her before Jiro asked a question to her.

"Where do you live if you say you had been with Nene for 10 years?" Jiro asked, Anya stopping in place and looking at us with a frown.

"I used to live in a peaceful villa called Noluta Village. It's in the exact opposite of the area we are in, far to the northeast in the eastern continent. Nene, when he abducted me, prevented me from knowing what he intended to do to the village... I have no idea what went on there during my absence, but your village is not the only one that he has caused problems for. Numerous other civilizations are under siege of Nene's madness... the nearest place for us to travel to is a wandering sheep tribe camp. We should prepare to venture out there while also using our Shadows to attack the numerous monsters out here. The more monsters we defeat, the stronger our magic will become," Anya explained to us.

"Understood. Let's move out," Kluke said as she rushed after her and Jiro and I followed suit. Though I had to wonder who this woman was... and if she really was converted into part machine by Nene, why was she so against him?


	2. Ch2: The Lot Wilderness

**Anya POV:**

Once we proceeded through the Lot Wilderness, I saw that the majority of monsters we came across were pathetically weak compared to my Shadow's strength. Given that most monsters in my area were extremely tough, that was to be expected. But Shu and the others were quite impressed with Mystic Mermaid's power and how it paled to theirs. They had to take a couple hits to defeat a common Poo Snake, whereas my power would completely wipe them out with one strike.

"Your Shadow is leagues above our shadows, Anya! We can't possibly compete," Shu smiled at me.

"Well, when you live in the harsh, frozen wastes of the northeast, you tend to gain tougher skills to face the tougher beasts. I've used my Shadow to defend my village from tons of incoming threats, including Bloodsuckers, purple dinosaurs with swords, giant mammoths, and even hermit crabs that have rocks for their shells. To put it bluntly, I've had to learn to defend my village from any kind of threat... then Nene got me and started to convert me into... well... this," I sighed as I then took off my left arm, the group astonished at that as I then moved the arm without it being in its socket. And I then showed them that, while I was still alive, my body was almost completely cybernetic on the inside, the only things remaining untouched being my bones.

"My god... Nene's a monster to have done this to you!" Kluke gawked at me.

"The only plus about becoming part robot is that I never need to eat or drink... that and I no longer need to use the bathroom. But those are the only good things. Everything else about this situation... it makes me feel like I've been turned into a monster myself," I admitted to them as I put my arm back in place and produced a few tears, my eyes also being a part of me Nene hadn't transformed into robotic parts. In fact, my head area was still intact for the most part with my brain still pumping with thoughts and my eyes still being able to produce water. But other than that, everything else about me was completely artificial.

"You aren't a monster, Anya. You've just been the victim of one," Jiro said, me smiling at him saying that as we continued forward, me stopping in place when we happened upon something strange.

"You see this too, right? These giant footprints?" I asked, everyone looking at them with shock.

"T-They're as big as my entire waist!" Shu gawked.

"Whatever made these was huge. Very huge. We need to stay on alert for the owner of these tracks and, if possible, steer clear of him at all costs," I said as we moved forward some more and I noticed that the Sheep Tribe Camp was only a short walk away. And the tracks disappeared at the base of a nearby cliff. "There's the Sheep Tribe Camp. Let's go in there and see if they can help us at all," I said as we proceeded into the camp and Shu then noticed something about the bag I carried.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

"Are those books in your bag? What are they?" I asked Anya when we got into the camp.

"These? They are very important not only for me, but for you as well. They are spell books, which can be used by those with magical shadows. I have mainly Guardian spell books on me, but I also have spell books for each of the other classes of magic. Shu, your Blue Dragon is currently a Sword Master, Jiro's Guardian Minotaur is of the White Mage, and Kluke's Fiery Phoenix is of the Black Mage class. Each time you get your shadow powered up, you gain the ability to use another type of class for your shadow. I have actually mastered Guardian and am quite high in all other classes, but you guys are gonna have to grind heavily in order to get to my league, no offence," Anya smiled at us.

"Spell books? And they can be used to make our attacks more powerful, right?" Kluke asked with a smile.

"That is correct. But for the more advanced spells, you'll need to have more powerful magic. For that, you will need your Shadow to reach a certain level of experience, as noted by the color of the aura you produce. The lowest level gives off a blue aura while the highest will net you a dark red aura," Anya explained.

"Very cool! So what level are our shadows right now?" I asked.

"Currently, Shu's shadow level is 2 for Sword Master, but Jiro and Kluke are still at level 1 for their respective classes. Once you reach level 2, you will be able to use a new skill. I recommend going after Generalist extremely early, as it will give you the capability of using more abilities to your other classes with 8 as the maximum. It will also give minor accessories such as bow ties and even footwear magical properties depending on what they are," Anya said.

"You sure know a lot about magical shadows, Anya. How long did you happen to have your mermaid shadow?" Jiro asked.

"I've had it with me since I witnessed my mother get hurt badly by a Rock Hermit Crab. I exploded with anger and, with it, my shadow emerged from my will to protect her. In order to gain perfect control over your powers, you'll need to find something that truly affects you personally and inwardly. Find some inner desire to get stronger, locked deep within you. Then you will gain true control over your shadows' magic, as it was for me," Anya smiled. And when she finished talking, we had finally made it to the Sheep Tribe Camp.

"Let's ask around to see if anything is up," I said as we then started to ask the tribesmen and women if they had any ideas on anything strange happening.

"You want to know if anything strange has happened as of late?" one of them asked. "Well, we have noticed that there is an area to the north of us that has a giant machine of some sorts. It's digging up holes everywhere trying to search for something, but we can't imagine as to what it could be," she said.

"Have you noticed anything in terms of giant footprints? Because we've been encountering those," Anya asked.

"You must be speaking of the Flamboyant Dragon, then. It's incredibly dangerous if it gets hungry, but it doesn't like the taste of wool, so it leaves us sheep people well enough alone... your group, however, may have a difficult time with it, as the monsters are becoming quite ravenous as of late," the tribeswoman said.

"Understood. We will exercise caution," Anya said, me wondering if she was like Jiro and incredibly smart about the world. After all, she had quite the vast vocabulary. "If we proceed now, we can probably get to that drilling machine and see what the deal is with it. Maybe we could use it to drill past the mountains," Anya smiled after that.

"Good idea," I admitted to her as Kluke just kept on blushing every time we looked at each other. If only Anya hadn't blabbed my secret attraction to Kluke, then maybe I could've been able to tell her myself when I got the chance! But now it was just all kinds of awkward whenever I looked at her and she looked at me.


	3. Ch3: Anya's Outburst

**Anya POV:**

"Why did you have to tell Kluke about... you know what?" Shu ended up asking me as we proceeded through the Lot Wilderness and came across some large craters and some ruined Mechat machines as well.

"I could sense that you liked her, so I simply told the truth... sadly, that is one of the few programming features that Nene gave me... that, and every time I address him, I cannot physically do so without calling him Master Nene. Other than those two things, I am completely myself, however," I said.

"That Nene... he said that he attacked our village with the Land Shark so that he could hear our screams! He killed mine and Shu's parents and many others over the years!" Kluke exclaimed, me stopping in place when she said that.

"Nene... he killed your parents with that machine?" I asked, my fists curling as I felt anger in my soul. He had never told me that his misdeeds ended up killing others.

"You never knew that?" Jiro asked me. I simply jumped into the air and slammed my fist down on a nearby rock so hard that, with my guardian class strength, shattered it to smithereens, the group in awe at it as I simply started to seethe with anger.

"Nene told me that he was simply antagonizing the different human settlements! He never told me that he was killing innocent people just for sick pleasure! If I find him again, I am going to punch right through his skull and reveal to him that you DO NOT mess with ANYA SINDA!" I exclaimed loudly, my voice echoing throughout the canyon and me not even caring. That is, until we heard some booming sounds that sounded like footsteps.

"Um... I think you just got the attention of the big guy," Shu said in fear.

"Do not be discouraged if it is larger than you. With magic, even the mightiest foe will kneel before you!" I exclaimed as I then saw the giant beast appear and it did look large, its neck alone being as big as two Kluke-sized people. "COME GET SOME!" I growled angrily as I then summoned forth my Shadow's true power, the mermaid emerging from my shadow and me looking at it with a smile, the others gobsmacked at what was happening. The mermaid and I then rushed forward with the force of a tidal wave and slammed our fists directly into the skull of the gigantic dragon, the blast being forceful enough to smash its skull the whole way through its brain and out the other end, the monster then falling to the ground with a thundering thud.

"That was AWESOME!" Shu exclaimed at me as the mermaid then bowed politely before once again returning to my shadow.

"How did you do that?" Kluke asked in amazement.

"Once you have mastered your shadow and how to truly utilize it, you will be able to call it forth as its own entity if you happen to have intense rage or frustration. In magic terms, it's actually called tension, but it can only happen after taking a few hits, dishing out a few, or, in other cases, when you get extremely furious, as I just did... normally I am quite formal and polite... but after hearing what Nene really does for kicks and giggles... it just makes me worried about what he possibly could've done to Noluta without me there to protect it," I sighed as I then grabbed a scale off of the back of the dragon and noticed that it was magical.

"This dragon scale could make for a good magical necklace. Anyone have some spare string on them?" I asked the group.

"I think I do," Kluke said as she pulled out some yarn, me smiling as I politely took it and began to fiddle with the dragon scale until I made the necklace complete.

"There we go. One Dragon Scale necklace. I don't really need one myself, but one of you might," I smiled at them.

"Well, who do you think should get it?" Shu asked.

"Hmm... let me see your Shadows real quick before I decide," I said, the group then nodding and letting out their shadows for me to assess. "Hmm... Jiro, your Guardian Minotaur is still a bit on the fragile side when it comes to defenses, so I'll give you the necklace," I said as I placed it over his head and the shadow looked to get a bit tougher from it.

"Whoa... I feel sturdier for some reason," Jiro gawked.

"Even the smallest accessory can give you magic if you have enough skills in the Generalist class. But the main 4 that can be used without a Generalist class are rings, earrings, wristbands, and necklaces. The necklace made from this dragon scale, from me sensing it, gives your shadow more health before it needs healing as well as a boost to defense and a resistance to earth-based spells," I explained.

"Can we make other necklaces from the dragon scales?" Kluke asked.

"Apologies, but from what I can sense, that scale was the only one imbued with any kind of magic. Magic can be in anything, but not everything of the item in question has magic. For instance, some stones have magic, but others do not. And almost every single gem has magical properties as well, but they are extremely hard to come by unless you live in Jibral," I explained.

"Okay, let's go then. We'll need to find that drill," Shu said as he led the way to the next area, me following suit along with Jiro and Kluke.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

When we happened upon the giant drill, we were impressed with the sheer size of it. It was as big as the tallest peak of Talta Village, which was where I usually lounged when the sky was clear. But Anya noticed something on the side of the drill that made her on edge.

"That's Nene's symbol on the side of the drill! The symbol of the Ancients!" she gawked, me looking at it in shock. It was a very weird insignia, having the shape of a red circle with three pointed parts divided into thirds in the top right, top left, and bottom of the circle. And in the middle was a space of white enveloping a black, shaded circle.

"Nene's symbol? Then who's in control of it?" Jiro asked.

"It must be one of his workers! Let's go in there, get to the helm, and take control of it for ourselves, using violence if need be," Anya said, Jiro placing his hand on her shoulder before she could rush off.

"It could just be that someone else has a shadow and found it, right? Let's ask the person inside about who they are before we attack, okay?" Jiro said, Anya calming down at that and sighing.

"You're right... thank you, Jiro... almost lost my cool again," Anya sighed as we then proceeded to the drill and looked at a ladder attached to it. It went very high and into a door at the top, all of us getting up the ladder with ease, despite the high drop. But the moment that Kluke got in last, the door suddenly slammed shut on all of us and we gasped as we heard the machine groan to life! We then looked out the window and I looked stupefied. We were tunneling underground and through tons of dirt and even rocks!

"I guess that the owner of the drill is trying to find a set of underground ruins... Nene once told me about an ancient underground hospital in this area that had long since been abandoned. It's filled with special medicine for all kinds of ailments... and he said once that there is a kind of elixir in that hospital that may be able to heal up some kind of disease he has... what kind of disease is beyond me, all I know is that this disease is the sole reason that he does all of these heinous acts," Anya said.

"Even still, if he's doing it because he thinks it will help his disease, killing innocent people isn't a cure! We need to find the owner of this drill and ask them what's going on," Jiro said.

"Agreed. Let's look around. If this is one of Nene's machines, then he's probably got different robots in here to defend it from intruders... I think I see one right now, right by what looks like a warp station," Anya stated, taking our group to the warp station in question and them all looking confused.

"Warp station? It looks like something back in Talta Village, but I never thought you could warp with them," Jiro admitted.

"Well, you'd need to have activated another Warp Device and have magical powers to use them... wait... I sense 23 magical artifacts on that robot! Maybe those are the keys!" Anya oohed as we then approached the robot and we saw that he looked a bit off.

"Do you have clearance to use this warp machine?" the robot asked. Anya simply answered by letting out her shadow and me smiling at how the mermaid formed water in her hand before slamming it directly into the robot's head, the robot exploding and all of the keys falling out in a small knapsack onto the ground.

"When it comes to robots, just don't trust them. Any kind of robot that isn't a servant robot is programmed by Nene. He told me that awhile back," Anya said as she picked out a key from the bag and inserted it into the device, the machine then humming to life with a purr and me smiling at that.

"Now we can use this warp station to warp to another place, right?" I smiled at her.

"That is correct. But before we use it, we'll need to search around for the cockpit and the owner of this drill... just so you know, if it does happen to be Nene, I am going to torture him for a minute for every single person he killed from your village. How many died at the hands of the Land Shark, as you call it?" Anya asked us.

"Including mine and Kluke's parents, there had to have been at least 30 people killed before today," I said, Anya growling at that, but holding her power in. I guess she had trouble with keeping a cool head at times, just like I did.

"Okay. Let's move out," she said as we proceeded to search around the interior of the giant drill machine.


	4. Ch4: Marumaro's Plight

**Anya POV:**

Once we got past a few more robots, our group came across what looked to be a duo of service bots, them looking at us and not attacking. "Excuse us, but is the door to the cockpit open?" I asked them.

"As far as we know, yes. But we are not allowed to let anyone inside unless they also have magical powers like Master Maro," one of them said.

"Well, does this qualify?" I asked them as I let out my mermaid shadow and my friends did the same thing.

"Yes, I believe that would qualify. Would you like for us to heal your wounds and magic?" the other one asked.

"That would be well appreciated," Kluke smiled, the group sighing contentedly as a coolness washed over them in the form of healing waves. "Thanks," Kluke smiled again as they then proceeded up and to the cockpit in question, going into an area where they saw the owner of the drill and were quite surprised as to what it was.

"Huh? A member of the Devee Tribe from Lago Village? What are you doing in here, little one?" I asked him politely.

"Maro could ask you same question! What are you doing here?!" he asked as he let out his shadow and I gasped. It was the Sabertooth Shadow, one of the shadows that Nene had split for his soul to be completed.

"Whoa, whoa, we don't intend to fight you. We just want to know why you have a drill owned by a murderous madman," Shu said, Maro looking at us in surprise before letting his shadow down.

"Murderous madman? You mean that creep with the frog, right?" Maro asked, me then noting his appearance. He looked no older than 7 in Devee years with his body being the shortest of us, being completely round and in a purple leotard with pant legs, a single hat on his head that was fashioned out of leather with two spikes at the top to make it look like he had horns. His body was completely yellow, his eyes were small and barely visible, and he had a cute black nose on his face to mark the fact that he was partly animal. And when he had calmed down, he then started to do a dance, which I joined in, as was custom.

"Devee Dance of Friendship!" Maro smiled, me smirking at him when he did that, but then we happened to get a bit of turbulence as I looked out the front and saw that we were entering a large cavern area. And there were tall towers as well.

"Could this be... the Ancient Hospital?" I asked.

"You know this place?" Maro asked.

"Yes. You're not the only one who hates Nene, young one. Though I had more time to spend with him, it was an unwilling 10 years, as you can see from this," I said as I showed him something that everyone looked shocked by. I turned my head around and out of its socket, my body still active as I looked at them with a small, sad smile.

"M-Maro scared!" he said in fear.

"Please, do not be scared... I am still alive, I'm just not a human anymore. I'm nothing more than a machine," I sighed as I then put my head back in place and Maro calmed down a bit, though still shaken.

"Oh right! Need to find special medicine for village! Follow Maro! More people means more strength!" Maro smiled.

"Okay then. My name is Anya. This is Shu, Jiro, and Kluke. We're trying to take the fight to Nene and make him hurt for all the people he's hurt. If you say you need medicine for your village, I have a suspicion that it was because of him. Let's try and find out what this medicine is," I said as we followed the young Devee out of the cockpit and down an elevator once the Drill Machine had touched the ground.

"Devee Dance of Greetings!" Marumaro smiled as he did another dance again, everyone but Jiro looking confused at that.

"The Devee tribe have a custom to dance whenever they want to express emotions. They have dances for everything. They dance when they pray, before they eat a meal, they even do a dance before going to bed for good dreams," I smiled.

"There's much more than that though," Maro smiled.

"I know there are over 200 different dances in the Devee Tribe's customs, so it will be cool to see them firsthand," I admitted to the cute little guy as we went down the ladder and started to go into the entrance of what looked to be a giant set of underground ruins set up like a futuristic hospital. "So what are we looking for, Maro?" I asked him.

"Miracle medicine! He said it would be here to save village!" Maro said, me looking at his emotions and gasping. The person in question just so happened to be Nene.

"Maro... I don't think that the medicine in question is going to help the villagers," I said, him looking at me in shock.

"Why not?" Jiro asked.

"I can sense it. This 'he' that you mentioned. It's the same man that murdered over 30 people in Talta Village with the Land Shark, tried to send my friends falling from over 6 hundred feet in the sky to the ground, and converted me into machine and tried to program me to do his every command," I said to him, Maro looking quite angry as he then looked at the others and started to cry.

"Maro, please do not cry... I think that, if I go to your village, I may be able to see something in the villagers that may show us what kind of disease is afflicting them. Do you trust me?" Kluke said, me smiling at her.

"You think that'll work?" I asked her.

"My parents were doctors before they were killed. I remember numerous different diseases and treatments, even as young as 4 years old... do you think you can take us to Lago Village so we can see the disease for ourselves?" Kluke asked Maro.

Maro then thought for a bit before then nodding and doing a dance. "The Devee Dance of Trust! Let's go, quickly!" Maro exclaimed, us going back into the drill and jetting off again through the rock and, after drilling for a bit, we popped out of the ground and started to drill through mountains and gigantic boulders until we finally stopped just outside of the Lago Village, a few Devee residents being stunned at the size of the machine. And honestly, who could blame them?

We then departed from the giant drill and proceeded down to the area with the Devee tribe, me locating the chief as Kluke went up first.

"Hello... Marumaro, did you bring the medicine?" the chief asked, me smiling at how Maro was his nickname.

"The one who promised the medicine was lying about it. But we have a doctor on our side that might have seen the symptoms of this disease. Do you mind if our friend Kluke could look at the patients?" I asked the chief.

"But of course," he said as we proceeded into the main hut and I gasped at the disease that the different villagers had. Kluke didn't even need to give a diagnosis, because I had seen this disease before myself!

"This... this is a disease caused by a poisonous flower native to the far northeast in Devour Forest! The rashing, the raspy cough, and the severe weakness... how long have they had this disease?" I asked them.

"Ever since the violet mist appeared in our village. Anyone who breathed it in ended up becoming afflicted with this disease... and what's even stranger is that it emanated from our fountain," the chief said, me growling at that, knowing exactly who was to blame.

"Nene... guys, let's go check this fountain out before we leave! If Nene really is behind this, the answer to getting this disease defeated should be there," I said, our group then rushing out along with Maro and, just as soon as we got to the fountain, we gasped as the purple fog started to appear from the sky. The fog that contained Nene's flying airship.

"Nene..." I growled lowly as I searched the bottom of the fountain really quickly and gasped when I found a capsule with Nene's insignia inside. And it looked like it was completely empty. I then focused some of my magic into the fountain and I smiled as a purple liquid left the fountain and evaporated into nonexistence. And then a large flash of light happened in front of us as Nene and Szabo came down from the sky.

"YOU! You tricked Maro! YOU LIED! Medicine no save village! And you poisoned village on purpose!" Marumaro exclaimed as he tried to attack, but his body suddenly seized up out of nowhere, me noticing that Nene had used the paralysis spell on him.

"Master Nene, you must stop this madness! Murdering innocent people for kicks and giggles are the works of a monster!" I exclaimed at Nene, him smiling at me as he then approached me with his floating chair.

"You wish to oppose me, do you, AM-A? I thought I had programmed you to obey all of my orders?" Nene smiled at me.

"You may have taken me away from my home, you may have transformed my body to be nearly completely robotic, and you may have given me the curse of eternal life... but there are 2 things you will never be able to take from me!" I exclaimed at him.

"And what would those be?" Nene smiled.

"My memories... AND MY POWER!" I exclaimed as I then let out my shadow and Nene gasped at it.

"What is this? You have magical prowess as well, and without my assistance, no less?" Nene looked gobsmacked at it.

"For every single person in Talta Village you killed, for poisoning the Devee Tribe, for kidnapping me from Noluta Village AND for converting me into a robot, I will DESTROY YOU!" I exclaimed as I activated a spell from the Black Magic tree and used a Windus on Nene, him looking amazed at my power as he got flown back quite a distance and Szabo looked on in shock.

"Your shadow may be strong, but mine will always be stronger!" Nene exclaimed as he summoned his shadow and it attacked me with a blast of fire, me simply deflecting it with a blast from my fingers piercing it in two and the others gasping at that. "You've got guns in your fingers?!" Kluke gawked.

"I suggest a retreat to be in order, your Excellency. We cannot hope to be taken on all at once," Szabo said with obvious concern in his voice.

"Indeed," Nene said, the little green thing then saying "Indeed, indeed!" afterwards. He then activated a barrier around himself and Szabo as they retreated back to his airship, me snarling in anger as I smashed my fist into the ground again, causing the ground underneath to crack hard.

"Miss Anya?" Marumaro asked me as I felt his tiny hands touch my side. I sighed and looked at him with a small smile.

"Marumaro, I know of a cure for this disease that these villagers happen to have, but first, I need to know how long they've been afflicted by it," I said.

"They've been sick for 2 days," Maro said.

"Then it's not too late. The cure for the disease caused by this poison lies in the Forest of the Dead, to the south peninsula. There is a special flower there with red petals and a yellow center. The leaves of this flower, when crushed and diluted into water are the cure. But we'll need to move quickly. The disease will kill all of them in 7 days minimum. If we aren't back within 5 days, then they will be goners," I said.

"O-Okay..." Marumaro said with concern as I saw a bunch of smaller Devees nearby. "Good luck, Maro! We'll be rooting for you!" said one of them, her being cute with a blue dress and blue hair on her head.

"Thanks, brothers and sisters... let's go," Maro said, me grabbing Shu, Jiro, and Kluke from the Devee's house and taking us down the path that would lead us to the area in question.


	5. Ch5: The Undersea Cavern

**Shu POV:**

Once we set off for the south, we proceeded through some more canyon areas until we happened upon an area full of water that went up to our ankles but also saw that there was a large section of water in front of us that was too deep and rough to cross by swimming over. "These are the wetlands. Though the water in front of us is too rough and deep to proceed by means of swimming, there should be a cave nearby that will allow us to go under the waves relatively dry and onto the other side of the peninsula. And there should be a Sheep Tribe camp near the entrance to the Forest of the Dead, so there's that as well," Anya stated.

"How do you know so much about the areas we keep visiting?" Jiro asked her.

"Back in Noluta, before I was the guardian defender of the village, I was in charge of the local library. I read mainly books about the world and its history, but also read some spell books just for kicks and giggles. Had I known that I would use those same spells in the future when I got Mystic Mermaid, I would've crammed them as much as the world history books," Anya smiled warmly.

"So what kinds of spells are in the books you have on you?" I asked her.

"Mainly spells in the form of Black Magic and White Magic, but I also have Support and Barrier magics, though in lesser supply. With my surreal strength and durability, I never really needed to study more than a few spells for those two latter classes. Besides, my skills in healing magic are to the point where I can cast the spell Previve, which will automatically revive a fallen ally if they happen to be killed by an attack, and the effect will last as long as there are monsters in the vicinity," Anya giggled.

"Well, maybe we should check our auras to see where we are now," Kluke smiled as she, I, Jiro, and Marumaro let out our shadows and Anya smiled.

"Shu has risen to rank 3 and Jiro and Kluke are rank 2 in White and Black Magic respectively with all three of you having a level 2 Generalist aura. Maro, on the other hand, has a bit more. Rank 2 in Black Magic, White Magic, and Sword Master while also having a rank 4 in Monk class. No wonder he's able to hit like a War Mech for such a little guy," Anya smirked at Marumaro.

"Hehe," Marumaro smiled, obviously boasting.

"So when are we going to be able to take full control of our shadows anyways?" Kluke asked.

"That will only happen once you all have reached rank 6 in at least one class. Only then will you be freed from those light spheres' influence and be able to take those shadows as your own. It will then be only a matter of time before you can use Corporeal attacks and be one with your inner shadow," Anya smiled.

"That sounds awesome! We better train like no tomorrow while we tear through the enemies!... Oh, but first, we really should go get the medicine," Shu smiled.

"I can see that you are quite exuberant for such a young man, Shu. It's almost as if you three are all different in terms of personality. Jiro is the smart and tidy one, Kluke is careful and cunning, and you are wild and exuberant. All good traits, depending on how you use them to their advantage," Anya said, our group blushing at that.

"What about Maro?" Marumaro asked.

"You're special in the fact that you express yourself through dance. But I can tell that, despite you being the youngest of us, you are actually quite brave to have gotten that shadow," Anya smiled.

"W-Well, that mean man gave me the light. Said it would help Maro save village," Maro said, Kluke and Jiro looking a bit perplexed while Anya looked a bit upset.

"What could that mean? Why would Nene willingly give you a shadow?" Jiro asked.

"Yeah, why would he?" I asked.

"I know why... I apologize for not mentioning it prior, but each of those light spheres is a part of Nene's magical soul. But as I have stated, all you need to do is reach rank 6 in a class of Shadow and then you must get intense angry inside of your body unlike any anger before. Once that happens, though Nene's soul will still be in you, it will no longer go up in strength from you using your own latent power. So it is essential that we get you to rank up to 6 in a class and then have some kind of anger rise up in you. We can then use that to conquer Nene with all of our talents," Anya said, me looking at her in confusion before a smile formed over my face.

"Damn, and I thought that Jiro was smart. You're on a whole other level to have thought out such a brilliant plan!" I smiled at her.

"Well, it's not as easy as it may seem, Shu. Nene can feel his soul's power wherever he goes, as it is a part of him. He will know when you are rank 6 and will then try to detain you and take his soul for himself, leaving you with no magic at all. It's happened at least 2 times before I gave you Nene's spheres... why they were by the Mechat loading docks is beyond me, however. He normally has them under lock and key... and there is still one final piece of his soul that has gone missing for quite awhile... the Killer Bat shadow," Anya said, me looking a bit confused at the last bit.

"Killer Bat? What kind of power does it possess?" Kluke asked.

"It possesses unbelievable speed and has balanced stats in pretty much everything else, save for a low usage of magic supply. Someone must have come onto the ship without my knowledge and made off with it, but who is still unknown to me," Anya said as we then proceeded down and into the cave in question, the place actually being quite a ways down and requiring us to go down a lot of steps before we reached the real area, which was covered in coral and pretty rocks and gems all over. But there were also some water-bound enemies that Maro smiled at.

"Magic Jellyfish, Hermit Crab Poos, and Cutlass Fish? No way they gonna get in Maro's way!" Marumaro smirked as he and the others rushed forward and began to attack the numerous different enemies while making sure to try and prevent the Magic Jellyfish from using any kind of spells.

"The Magic Jellyfish don't have that name for nothing. They can use Wind and Water spells with quite the devastating blow to any unlucky enough to have no magic defense," Anya said as we moved forward some more until we happened upon an area that looked to be inaccessible due to the water being quite low. "No worries for the water being low. Watch and learn how to truly utilize the power of the water," Anya smiled as she focused her power and, out of nowhere, we gasped as the water started to rise with a platform so that we could cross it! Good thing too, since the bottom of the water was filled with nasty piranha.

"You keep amazing us every time you use that mermaid shadow, Anya! I never would've thought of doing that," Kluke smiled.

"Well, I simply used the Waterus spell, which has a large flume of water emerge and stay in place depending on where I send it to. If at an enemy, it simply dissapears after it hits them enough. But to anything that is already a body of water or happens to be just regular ground and rocks, it will stay put for as long as we wish. I suggest we cross so we can continue onward," Anya said as we moved across the platform and went to the other side, our group then noticing a large area filled with ankle-deep water and a trio of chests at the end.

"Wait... I sense danger lurking nearby..." Anya said, me looking to where she was and me gasping as I narrowly dodged out of the way of a huge snake head trying to chomp down on me! But it wasn't just any snake. It was a monster that Maro gasped at.

"Oh no! Hyrdrattler! He's a tough one, guys, be careful!" Maro said as we proceeded to the Hydrattler and Anya smiled at this.

"I've actually faced a stronger version of this myself at one point that was green and could petrify foes. This won't take too long," she smiled as she charged of an attack and I smiled at how it was a powerful fire blast that completely charred off one of the heads!

"My turn!" Kluke smiled as she sent a Flara spell at another head and it got very badly damaged, but not out. I then answered with a smack to that same head, knocking it out in the process. But then the Hydrattler did an attack of his own. And what did he do? He roared extremely loudly and I suddenly felt extremely weakened as I saw a green ooze dripping off my hand.

"Ack! I've been poisoned!" Kluke exclaimed, me then knowing that someone had to cure the poison. "Don't worry, I'll assist," Anya said as she cast a White Magic spell and I gasped as the poison left mine and Kluke's bodies immediately, allowing Jiro to attack one of the heads himself and then Kluke to use Flara on the same head. Only one head remained on the Hydrattler as it then tried to extend that head forward to bite directly into Anya's body and she let him do it! I was scared she might die from that deep a wound, but was amazed at how, even though it bit into her arm, the bite barely affected her! That and the fact that the snake's fangs broke off after Anya yanked back made me smile at her tactful nature.

"Being a robot means immunity to nearly all types of afflictions. Poison and sharp fangs don't affect me one bit," Anya smiled as she then used her Mermaid to smack the Hydrattler's remaining face twice in a row, defeating it quite easily!

"Anya is Amazing!" Maro smiled.

"Thanks for the compliments, guys," Anya smiled at us as we then looted the treasure chests and left the place, us having to go up some more steps until we saw that we were now on the part of the peninsula that contained the Forest of the Dead.

"Before we do anything else, we need to stock up on supplies at the Sheep Tribe Camp. The Forest of the Dead is not a place to be taken lightly," Jiro said.

"Good thinking, Jiro. Maybe if we hurry, we can get back to Lago Village before nightfall. Then we can stay the night with them," I smiled at him.

"That's after we give them their medicine. Speaking of, when we do get to the leaf of the Gabo plant, which is what it is called, we need at maximum 5 leaves from the flowers to get enough for everyone. When collecting the medicine, make sure that at least one leaf is left on each flower after collecting the leaves. That should ensure that they still thrive in this forest," Anya stated.

"Good idea," Kluke smiled as we then proceeded to the Sheep Tribe Camp to stock up on supplies.


	6. Ch6: Forest of the Dead

**Anya POV:**

After we stocked up on supplies in the Sheep Tribe Camp, our group proceeded to the Forest of the Dead and, let's just say, the place was very accurately named. The ground was barren with few patches of grass. The trees were lifeless with rotted fruits in their branches. And I could feel the ominous magics of poison and spiritual enemies all around us. "Be wary, guys. I sense danger in these woods. Let's try to find the Gabo Plant," I said as we ventured forward.

After traveling for a bit, we soon encountered some ghastly enemies in the form of Skeletons, Scavenger Wolf Ghosts, and the occasional Grinning Ghost, which had powerful physical attacks. I then gasped when we came to an area that was an island surrounded by a lake of poison. And in the center of the island was a tree that had magic! I rushed forward across the bridge and took care of the enemies before speaking to the tree, everyone joining up as well.

"Excuse me, can you assist us?" I asked, the others looking at me in confusion that I was talking to a tree. But then it spoke to us.

"Please... find my stolen soul... to the southeast... past the poison mist... I will repay your... kindness..." the tree said, his voice very raspy in my head and in the others' heads as well.

"Spooky... so we need to find a soul of a tree beyond some poison mist? How do we deal with that?" Marumaro asked.

"I'll go. But even then, it'll be tough. Poison through skin is one thing. But if it's a mist, and it happens to go in my body through my face, it's a direct feed to my brain. Poisoned brain equals dead Anya... I'll just have to rely on my echolocation features while closing all orifices while I travel through that mist. You should stay here. I'll be back soon," I said as everyone stayed in that place and I proceeded to close all of my different holes on my head. I shrunk my ears, my nose holes clogged themselves with perfect plugs, I closed my eyes tight and made sure my mouth was shut as I then activated my heat sensors in my mind to see where I was going.

I went across a bridge into the mist and used my heightened senses until I saw that there was no more red light around my vicinity. I then opened my eyes and saw that I was on the other side of the mist. I then looked nearby and saw a treasure chest that I sensed had magic within it. I opened it up quickly and smiled when I saw a light sphere similar to that of Nene's soul.

"Please... return me to my earthly form..." the soul spoke to me, which I smiled at as I then closed all orifices once again and proceeded back through the mist before emerging on the other side, seeing that Shu and the others were still by the tree with heat sensors. I then opened my orifices after I got out of the mist and proceeded towards the group with the soul in hand.

"Is that it?" Jiro asked.

"Yes, it is... here is your soul back, mister tree," I said as I placed the soul inside of the tree's body with magical powers, the tree then gasping to life, though it still didn't move.

"Oh! My soul has been returned to me! Thank you, intrepid travelers! What can I do to repay you?" the tree asked as I saw that the poisonous river then receded enough so that we could be allowed access to the previously-submerged drawbridges and the other parts of the area.

"Could you try to help us find a Gabo plant?" Kluke asked.

"I would love to, but I'm afraid I must tell you that the path is filled with that poisonous mist. The only way to defeat this mist is to eliminate the machine creating it due north of here. It was placed there nearly a month ago. If you can turn it off, then I shall reveal the location of the Gabo plant," the tree spirit said.

"But of course. Let's go find this machine," I smiled as we then proceeded to find this machine. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was made by none other than Nene himself.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Once we found the machine and saw Nene's symbol on it, Anya went up to it and began to open up a part of it and cut a select duo of wires. Once they were gone, the machine sputtered to a stop and I suddenly felt the air around us get much cleaner.

"This machine is permanently out of commission. Now let's go back to the tree and find out where to find that flower," Jiro said.

'Yeah! Maro's village counting on that flower!" Marumaro exclaimed. We then arrived back at the tree and he again thanked us before explaining where to find the Gabo plant.

"Near the area where you found my stolen soul, there should be a second drawbridge that travels northward. Across that bridge will take you to the deepest part of this forest. That is where the Gabo plants thrive. But beware of the King," the tree said, us looking confused at that last bit, even Anya.

"Beware of the King... never knew that there even was a king that resided here... it must be a ghost or a monster of sorts. We must exercise caution and try to avoid pissing him off," Anya said.

"Agreed," I smiled, especially since I caught her saying a bad word. She very rarely swore, which made me smirk when she did.

"Maybe I don't swear as often as others because I am formal and polite. If you were raised to be more prim and proper and how to behave with curtsy, then you may understand," Anya smiled as she then led the way there and I could barely comprehend some of the words she used, even though they were smaller words.

"Point Anya," Jiro snickered. We continued through the area the tree told us to go to before we ended up in a large open grove with a lightshow of red emanating from the back-most part. It was the Gabo plant supply for sure. But when we went to go collect the leaves, we all gasped as we heard a voice in our heads that sounded old and rather angry.

"You dare to take the last Gabo plants? How uncouth that you would steal from me!" the voice said in our heads. It was Anya who was brave enough to speak.

"Apologies sir, we didn't mean to intrude. Besides, we weren't hoping to take the plants themselves. Just at most 5 leaves from them. Is that too much to ask?" Anya asked politely and formally. I didn't expect the ghost to respond kindly, but to my pleasant surprise.

"You... you are a woman of nobility, that much I can tell of your voice. Tell me, where hast thou come from?" the ghost asked.

"I am a noble of Noluta Village. Daughter of the village mayor and the guardian defender for Noluta Village. May I ask what nobility you may be from? The tree said that you were a King," Anya asked.

"I used to be a ruler of a far away land, but I chose to reside in this forest until the end of my days. These Gabo plants are all I have left to my name," the spiritual voice said.

"We promise you, your majesty, that we do not intend to harm or steal your Gabo flowers. We only require 5 leaves of them. We need them to save an entire village from death by Miasma Bloom poison," Anya explained. When she said that last part, the ghost gasped audibly, which I felt a slight rustle in the wind when it did that.

"Miasma Bloom? In that case, you may have 5 leaves. But if you take any more than that or you damage any of the Gabo plants, I will destroy you," the ghost said.

"We promise not to hurt your flowers, sire," Anya bowed politely as she then slowly approached the flowers and, one by one, she picked off a leaf of each flower that had more than one leaf on it. Once all five of the leaves were picked, she placed them in a small bag and then placed that in her satchel. "We shall be taking our leave now, your highness. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Anya smiled politely.

"It was a pleasure meeting you as well, young noblewoman. You are free to visit here anytime you wish," the ghost said as I suddenly felt the air lose its tension around us.

"Okay, now we need to go back to Lago Village. Everyone, grab hold of my body and I shall warp us to the Warp station in the Drill Machine. I neglected to use one of these keys on the Warp device in Lago Village before we left," Anya frowned.

"That's quite alright," Maro smiled as we all grabbed onto her body in different areas. I grabbed her hand while Kluke grabbed the other, Maro grabbed her leg and Jiro placed his hand on her shoulder. We then gasped as we were blinded by a bright light and the area around us suddenly changed from the darkness of the forest to the dimly lit interior of the Drill Machine. "Oogh... Maro dizzy..." Marumaro said as he tried to walk forward, but fell on his butt afterwards.

"First time warping is a doozie for sure. Now let's quickly get these leaves prepared to give to the citizens. We'll need to give them a cup at dusk and, after a good night's rest, they will need one more cup in the morning. Once they have that final cup and it all reaches their stomachs, they will instantly be cured," Anya explained.


	7. Ch7: Devee Dance of Joy

**Anya POV:**

Once we got back to the sick Devee tribe, I immediately began to prepare the medicine carefully and properly. I crushed the leaves into a powdery form and then diluted them into different cups of water, having enough for two cups for each sick Devee. One for now, and another in the morning. Once I got the medicine poured, I helped the others distribute it to the other Devee tribe members, me noticing that Marumaro's parents were also among those poisoned. I was actually surprised that Maro had so many siblings that were all the same age. That means that his parents had sextuplets after having Maro as a single kid.

"Mommy, daddy? Do you feel better?" Marumaro asked after they drank the full cup's worth.

"Easy, Marumaro. Remember what I said? A good night's rest and then a second dose in the morning. Once that second dose reaches their stomach, they will all be cured. For now, we should find a place to rest," I smiled at the anxious little guy.

"You can stay at our place, but we don't have enough beds for one of you," one of Maro's sisters said.

"That's quite alright. I'm much more comfortable just lying out under the stars," I smiled honestly to them as we then left the Devee residents to go to sleep and I saw that the sun was just about to go down in the distance. I went over to a grassy patch that was underneath a trio of trees and smiled as I calmed my body and closed my eyes. "Activating sleep mode... wake up at 7 AM," I said aloud, my body then letting me go to sleep like I had been for the past 10 years.

It was then that I entered dream mode, which was the only time that I was able to speak with my shadow, who looked at me with kindness in her eyes as always. "A penny for your thoughts?" she smiled at me.

"It's just... so much has happened in one day. And all because of Nene. Why is he doing all of these horrific actions? What has he done to Noluta during my decade-long absence?... Is my family still alive after all this time has passed... Tons of questions are wrapped in my brain and I can't find out the answers. It really is aggravating that I have been kept captive by Nene all this time and he never once told me how my family was or Noluta in general. The next time I see him or Szabo, I am going to demand that they tell me what has happened to my home during my absence," I said in all honesty.

"I hate it too, but we mustn't rush things. For now, all we can do is help the Talta residents return home and, in the process, annihilate the Land Shark that has killed so many innocents over the years... to think that Shu and Kluke have lost both of their parents at such a young age... it really is despicable," Mystic sighed at me.

"I agree. After we find their friends and family, then we should proceed north and to the east so we can get to Nene's other bases such as the Laser Fields and the Ancient Factory. I will not allow any of them to lose the Shadow power they have, nor will I allow them to be hurt by that madman's lust for power," I said to Mystic.

"As honest as always... I really wish that we could speak like this outside of dreams, Anya. I really want to practice my singing skills when you're awake, you know," Mystic admitted to me.

"How about this? I'll let you out to sing tomorrow at some point," I smiled at her.

"That would be nice," Mystic smiled back at me.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

When I woke up the next morning, I saw that Jiro and Kluke were still asleep, but all of Marumaro's family and he were already out of bed and out of the house. I then woke up my friends and we went up the ladders. After getting up the second one, we heard a loud yell happen from the town hall. It was Maro's voice. "IT WORKED!" he exclaimed in pure joy, me and the others smiling as we proceeded down the steps and I noticed a warp station, me placing a key in there on our way down. Once we got into the town hall, we saw that the Devee tribe was all happy and that Maro and his family were the happiest.

"Ooho! I feel so alive! Honey, I feel like we could have another child, or two! AHA!" Maro's dad smiled heartily.

"Oh dear, you're so wild!" Maro's mom smiled before both of them were tackled by Maro and his siblings in a big group hug filled with laughter.

"Dance everybody! Everyone dance! Do the Devee dance of Joy!" Maro's dad exclaimed, me noticing that Anya was in the center of an arena of sorts where everyone started to dance, me smirking when she let out her shadow and it then started to do something we didn't expect. It started to sing not only lyrics, but also music at the same time!

"Aaa-aaaah! Lala lala la la la laaaa! Aaa-aaaah! Lala lala la la laaaa!" the Mermaid sung extremely beautifully, all the Devee singing along in their own language as well and Marumaro smiling happily too.

"You have done so much for our village. Dance my people! Show your gratitude!" the elder said to us with a smile on his face as well.

The party lasted for a good 30 minutes before we dispersed, our group already having a new permanent member in Marumaro, who offered to go with us to help stop Nene from hurting anyone else. "Happy to have you along, Marumaro," Jiro smiled at him.

"So what do we do now?" Maro asked.

"First, we report back to Talta Village. I'd like to meet the natives and help you annihilate the Land Shark," Anya said.

"Any idea how to get there from here?" Shu asked.

"Gul Mountains. There should be a passage through there we can use. Only problem is that a giant rock blocks the path," Anya frowned.

"I can assist you with that," said the voice of the Devee tribe's chief as he came around to meet us. "Marumaro, learn this dance before you leave," the chief said as he then started to do a dance and I smiled at how Maro learned it quickly. "Do you got it? This is the special incantation dance that will allow you passage through the cave to Talta Village. The way through there has some powerful monsters, so make sure your group is well-prepared," the chief smiled at us.

"But of course. We will be prepared for whatever comes our way," Anya smiled kindly.

"By the way, your mermaid shadow is quite the talented singer. How does she get such a gorgeous voice?" the chief smiled.

"She's a mermaid. All mermaids are talented singers. And as far as I know, she's one of the few shadows that can speak her own mind. She just prefers to stay quiet when she comes out," Anya admitted, her cheeks flushing red slightly at that.

"Never seen you blush before, Anya. It makes you look cute," Jiro smiled. That only made Anya blush even more.

"Let's continue on before you blush anymore," Kluke giggled as we then left the village and followed Anya to the Gul Mountains.


	8. Ch8: Toripo and Destroyed Talta Village

**Anya POV:**

Once we reached the giant stone, Marumaro performed the dance and, after doing it successfully, the stone magically opened up on both sides, allowing us access to the Gul Mountains. "Nice job, Marumaro! Now let's get back to Talta Village," I said as we then proceeded into the mountains and into a cave that I saw had numerous crystals as well as some trees that emitted a magical glowing sap on them. And after we proceeded into the caves, I noticed that someone else was here. Someone that looked quite strange.

He had a mask on him that looked like a gas mask, he was about the same size as Marumaro, had on a green outfit with a backpack on his back, and he had hands that were obviously robotic, what with them being mechanical clamp-shaped claws. "Oh? What have we here? Hah! Why if it isn't the owner of the Mystic Mermaid! How are you doing, madame?" the man smiled at me. And once I heard his voice, I gasped audibly.

"Oh. My. God. Is that really you, Toripo?! What are you doing all the way out here, old coot?" I smiled at him.

"I was actually trying to find the Aurora Ruins, but I seem to have gotten a bit sidetracked by the gorgeous glowing sap in these caves. Do you wish to purchase anything? I have fine and rare items as always for valued customers," Toripo smirked as he opened his bag and showed off a lot of fine items and jewelry, me immediately being entranced by a particular necklace on his person.

"I'd like that necklace, please. How many medals does it cost?" I asked.

"It is worth 100 medals for this fine necklace. It is actually handcrafted since ancient times and has the essence of the Ancients resting within it," Toripo said, me smiling at that as I could sense the magic inside of this necklace. It was awesome.

"Deal," I smiled as I gave him the medals and he gave me the necklace, me putting it on and feeling more powerful already.

"And can I offer anything to your young allies? I sense that they too have abilities similar to yours," Toripo smiled at my friends.

"How much for that belt?" Kluke asked when she saw a black belt of power that I gasped at.

"This belt here? It is extremely valuable to those with shadow properties like us. It will allow your shadow to get double experience from facing off against monsters! It is worth 150 medals," Toripo smiled.

"Would you like for me to purchase it for you if you don't have enough, Kluke?" I asked her.

"Actually, we have 200 medals in total. I've been saving them up for a collection, but I guess I can give them up for this belt," Kluke smiled as she handed over 150 medals and Toripo then gave her the black belt, her putting it on over her sash and smiling.

"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Kluke smiled.

"And how much for that ring?" Jiro asked.

"This ring is worth 25 medals. This ring is said to have been worn by the King of the Ancients long ago. Apparently he also has a shadow of such incredible power, it actually eats away at his sanity and his health... I believe that his shadow was said to be the Chimera shadow, one of the most powerful in history," Toripo said, me gasping at that.

"Give him 50 medals for that one, then. That's just got to be Nene's ring," I said, Jiro nodding at that and giving him double the price for the ring.

"You know of the original owner of this ring, you say?" Toripo asked me.

"Know him? He kidnapped me and converted me into a robot! And then he kept me locked up in his flying airship for 10 years!" I said to him.

"So that's where you disappeared to... I was wondering why I hadn't seen you in so long... and why that has happened to Noluta," Toripo said, my heart jumping when he said that.

"What happened to Noluta, Toripo? Please, tell me," I said to him.

"From what I saw, nearly the entire city and its denizens... have been frozen in place with an ancient ice machine in their temple. I tried to take it out myself to save them, but the monster guarding it is too powerful," Toripo said, my eyes welling up with tears when I heard that.

"My home... everyone is frozen in ice... Nene... you will pay for this... I will make you pay, Nene," I growled lowly and angrily as I had to punch something. Anything. I looked at a nearby crystal and rushed it, smashing my fist into it with enough force to crack and shatter a part of it off.

"Don't worry, Anya. We'll get to Noluta to save everyone at some point. We just have to find a way there," Shu said.

"Okay... did they at least look peaceful?" I asked Toripo.

"They did, and none of them have aged a day in that ice," Toripo said. I couldn't help but sniffle at that.

"At least I know that they aren't suffering," I sighed as I then looked at my friends. "Let's go to Talta Village. Until we meet again, Toripo," I smiled at him.

"Good luck in your endeavors, I'm off to find the Aurora Ruins!" Toripo smiled as he then left the opposite direction, our group proceeding deeper and deeper into the Gul Mountains.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Once we got through the Gul Mountains, we overlooked the valley and we gawked at how we saw Talta Village in the distance. "We've made it... we've been gone for so long. I hope that everyone is alright," Kluke said with concern.

"Let's get there and see," Anya said as we went forward and, after defeating a few enemies in the form of Snakefaces and Mountain Crabs, we walked into the entrance to Talta Village... and we were devastated by what we saw. The place was absolutely in shambles, almost all the houses at ground level were annihilated, and even the houses above ground were strewn with stray bits of wood and dust all over the place.

"Oh my god... what has happened here?... This is all caused by that thing you called the Land Shark?" Anya gasped in shock. I didn't answer her. I instead rushed forward with Jiro following.

"Grandpaaaa!" I exclaimed with tears streaming down my face.

"Mother! Father! Where are you?!" Jiro exclaimed in fear as we rushed forward and through the village, us gasping as we felt the ground start to quiver underneath us.

"W-What's going on?!" Maro asked from behind us.

"Guys! It's coming! Prepare to attack!" Kluke exclaimed, me and Jiro gasping as the giant dorsal fin we all remembered jutted out of the sands and tried to rush us. But before it could smash into us, we all gasped as someone got in the way and grabbed hold of it. It was Anya!

"Sand Shark Mech! I command you to rise and show your true form!" Anya exclaimed as she used her sheer strength to lift out the giant dorsal fin and we all gasped as the whole of the Land Shark rose from the ground and looked at us face-to-face. And just like before when we rode it up to Nene's ship, it was completely mechanical underneath!

"Time to do some open-head surgery!" Anya exclaimed as she then used her fist and, defying all laws of physics, punched a hole straight through the top of the mech, the Land Shark actually producing sparks as she then summoned her shadow to wreck apart whatever was inside of it. After only at most a minute, the Land shark suddenly stopped moving. It fell onto the ground and stayed above the sand, completely incapacitated. "It is done... this Land Shark wasn't the only one Nene owns though. He has others, but they are not on his flying airship. They are in some of his bases of operations in this world," Anya explained as she jumped off the top of the Land Shark and we were about to say something before we heard something from one of the houses.

"Help!" said the voice of a man that we knew from Talta Village! It was the owner of the Inn and he was trapped under a stray set of junk nearby!

"Don't worry, we'll help you out," I said as I rushed up to him and Jiro and Kluke did the same, all of us letting out our shadows and using them to lift up the debris that covered the Innkeeper.

"Oogh... what the... Jiro? Kluke? Shu?... Where'd you get those fancy shadows?" he asked when he saw our shadows.

"We'd love to tell you, but we need to know where everyone is at," Kluke said.

"I believe that Fushira left a note for you three in his workshop. I would've left as well, but I got trapped under some rubble just out of the Land Shark's reach. Everyone else managed to escape, though... but I never expected that the Land Shark, this whole time, was a giant robot ship," the Innkeeper admitted.

"We were stunned when we saw it reveal itself as well," Jiro said.

"Let's go to this Fushira's workshop. If he left a note about the village, then we should inspect it... but what about you, mister Innkeeper? What will you do?" Anya asked.

"Before I got trapped under this rubble, Fushira told me to stay behind to keep an eye out for you guys. Boy will he be pleased to hear that you and your friends destroyed the Land Shark," the Innkeeper smiled.

"It wasn't us. It was all Anya," I admitted. Anya smiled at that, but retained her serious composure.

"Let's see what Fushira had to say," Anya said as I then led her to where my grandpa's workshop was at.


	9. Ch9: Mural Valley and Saving Villagers

**Anya POV:**

After we found the note and read it aloud, I looked at it with a smile. "At least we know everyone's okay... they said they were going to Jibral. That means they'll be taking the Coast Road to get there," I said when we finished the note.

"Maro don't know. Is it far?" Marumaro asked.

"It's about a 3 day's hiking trip to get from here to Jibral from the Coast Road. Maybe we should take a shortcut through the Valley of Murals," Jiro said, Shu looking a bit surprised when he said that.

"What's wrong with going through a valley filled with paintings?" I asked aloud.

"You don't know? There are ancient tales of the murals coming to life and eating people that pass by!" Shu said with worry in his voice.

"Listen, I don't know about you, but I'm sure we can handle anything that awaits us in that valley. After all, we've got magic powers. A few living paintings should go down quite easily with some magical water splashed on their bodies," Kluke smiled.

"I'm in agreement with Kluke. If we go through the Valley of Murals, we'll be able to get through in only a few hours. Then we'll see if anyone walked near the road to Jibral and decide on which way to go from there... I can tell because of a map system Nene gave me in my codes. The coast is much longer of a trek than this Mural Valley," I said with a smile.

"Alright! Then let's go!" Maro exclaimed.

"Yes. We have to find them and protect them from harm. Especially Landon and his family. Their baby girl isn't any older than a month, so who knows what troubles they'll encounter?" Kluke said, me frowning at that.

"Add one more reason to hate Nene into my brain," I frowned at that.

"Let's just go," Jiro said as we then took the note and proceeded out of Talta Village and due to the east. It was there that we would get to the Mural Valley and, upon entering, I saw that it was a valley full of giant chasms and rocky crags. There was barely any space on the solid areas, me noticing that there was a particular drawing on a wall that looked quite spooky. And I sense magic within it.

"I know you're alive and kicking, imbecile! Taste some Waterus Sword on for size!" I exclaimed as I hit the mural with a blast of water magic, the large painting groaning in agony before dissipating into thin air.

"Looks like we need to keep an eye on the walls to prevent any unnecessary attacks," Shu said.

"Yes, let's continue," Jiro said as we proceeded further into the area, crossing bridges and taking out monsters all along the way. And after going for a good hour, we started to get a bit of tired feet.

"Wait... what's that up ahead?" Kluke asked when we happened upon what looked to be a large building of sorts.

"Must be some kind of ancient structure. The Ancients probably built it eons ago... let's be wary of any evil murals within," I said as we went forward some more and into the large area. And when we entered the building, I immediately saw murals... but none of them looked scary in the slightest.

"These murals don't look scary whatsoever... do you suppose they happen to be alive as well?" Jiro asked.

"Some of them look cute," Marumaro smiled. I then looked at a mural that was shaped like a female and sensed that it had magic within it, but no evil intent.

"Hello, there... are you real, like the other murals we've been seeing?" I asked it, the mural then moving at that and spooking the heck out of everyone.

"We are alive as you are, hon. Tell me, what's your name?" the mural said with a smile.

"Anya. Anya Sinda," I smiled at her.

"Anya. What a nice name! Come here, everyone! We have received some visitors for the first time in decades!" the female mural smiled warmly as a bunch of other murals appeared, me seeing some looked like children, some were males, some females, and even little flying cat murals that made the cutest little sounds.

"Well, the reason you don't have many visitors coming here is because of the evil murals that we had to fight on the way here. They've been known to attack others and they did the same to us," Jiro said.

"Do not worry, we are not like those evil murals. They have been tainted by some strange magic that we have protection from so long as we are in this building. And since we cannot move from these walls, we are safe forever," the female mural smiled.

"Well, we're always happy to meet friendly faces... do you know the nearest way out of here and to the road to Jibral? We're trying to meet up with our friends and family," Kluke asked.

"Well, you'll first need to go through the story simulation before the door will open for you in the central hall. Then you must go through the hall and to the east to proceed to the next section of this valley. But beware, for there is a fearsome phoenix that guards the passage to that entrance. It's weak to wind attacks, but it will get angry if you use a wind spell on it. And you will not like an angry phoenix, let me tell you that right off the bat," the male mural smiled.

"Noted. Let's go have a story told to us," Shu smiled as we then proceeded down the hall and to the story hall, the walls covered in full mural displays that didn't move at all and a central mechanism in the middle.

"Welcome, intrepid travelers. Allow me to regale you of a tale from long ago. The origin of magic and its eventual downfall," the machine said, obviously having a cpu chip inside of it to give it awareness.

"When the world was created, it was ruled by a kind and just king whose magic far exceeded that of all others... In these times, there were heavy restrictions based on magical prowess. Those who had little or no magic would be persecuted horribly by those with greater magic... Angered by the mistreatment of his weaker subjects, the king ordered that machines be created to assist those with little or no magical talent. Many mechs were made for this reason alone, to be servants to the weak... and thus, the ultimate invention, mixing technology and magic, the Eternal Engine was created. But with their creation, cost the lives of many..." the voice said as we then looked at the final mural and I gasped.

"That looks like the great war that Nene mentioned... he said that he and his servant were the last survivors in an all-out war where those with more magic created a frightful bio-genetic weapon that was created specifically for the destruction of the weaker magics... and that same weapon was said to have turned on its creators as well... but he has no memory of what it looked like... this giant lizard-looking thing looks like that weapon in question... am I right on any of that, storyteller?" I asked.

"You say you know of Master Nene? Do you not know that he was, in fact, the king mentioned in this story?" the storyteller asked, all of us gasping at that.

"You say that Nene was once a kind and just ruler? Then why is he hurting all of us now?" Maro asked loudly.

"It is because of a dreadful illness that has taken a hold of our king once the bio-genetic weapon was sealed away. He had exuded and used too much magic and, as a result, he developed a dreadful disease that ate away at his sanity and his soul. The one thing he had left in this world was the one thing he always kept in his heart. The hope that, one day, he may see his beloved servant once more... unfortunately, that is all that I know of the story. The answers will reveal themselves in due time. I shall now open the way to the central hallway. Be wary, young mages, for the road ahead shall not be easy," the storyteller said as we then heard a door opening nearby.

"Okay... now we have some more information on Nene that we haven't heard of before... this weapon... what could it be? And where could it have been sealed? Nene never mentioned anything about a bio-genetic weapon that looked like this, so maybe this disease made him forget where it was kept and what it was," I said.

"What puzzles me even more is this servant that the storyteller mentioned. Do you think that, maybe, just maybe, this servant could still be out there somewhere? And what was the servant's name?" Jiro asked.

"We'll leave the thinking work to you two. But we should really get moving," Kluke said.

"Wow, I was thinking the same thing, Kluke," Shu smiled.

"He's being honest," I smiled as we then proceeded out of the place and towards the way to the next part of Mural Valley.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

We managed to handle the Phoenix with ease, but once defeated, Anya moved us along extremely fast to the next areas of the Mural Valley with no haste whatsoever.

"What's the rush?" I asked her when we went down a fallen bridge to a lower level of the valley.

"Phoenixes can never die truly. They may die at some point, but they always resurrect themselves without fail in roughly one to two hours. I'm just trying to save time and prevent us from fighting it again," she said.

"I think I remember reading about that once. Apparently Phoenixes are gods among birds, so she's right about them resurrecting themselves. No wonder their talons and wings are used to resurrect fallen allies," Jiro smiled.

"You know, I think that you two could make a very cute couple when our adventures are done," Kluke smiled, Jiro and Anya blushing at that.

"By the way... um... Kluke... about um... what Anya told you," I said, trying to finally break the ice with her.

"When we get a chance to rest, we'll talk," Kluke said.

"Okay... that's good," I said as we continued down another fallen bridge and proceeded through the valley some more until, finally, we arrived at the exit of the valley.

"There's the road to Jibral! We've made it!" Kluke smiled.

"Let's see if anyone has been by recently," Anya said as we went to the road and she and Jiro inspected the ground for tracks. There were no tracks and no wheel marks anywhere.

"They must not have come through yet. If we proceed south down the Coast Road, we may be able to meet up with them," Jiro said.

"Let's hurry. This road can be quite dangerous. I've heard from Nene that this road has recently become overrun with giant steel-eating tigers. Just the name alone makes me have goosebumps..." Anya said.

"Because you're part metal?" Maro asked.

"I guess so," Anya admitted as we proceeded down the road and, only after one turn, we saw the villagers. And they were being blocked by a duo of giant tigers!

"Let's go!" I exclaimed as we rushed in to attack the giant tigers and, just before one of them could lunge at my grandpa, Anya swooped in and smacked her fist directly into the creature's mouth, knocking out two of its four fangs in the process!

"What the... Shu! Jiro! Kluke!" Fushira gasped when he saw our group.

"Don't worry, we'll take it from here," I said as we then let out our shadows and everyone looked shocked at that. But none more so than Jiro's parents.

"Jiro! Your shadow!" his mom exclaimed in shock.

"It's fine, don't worry about it!" Jiro said as we then looked at our foes with a smile.

"Time to make some flame broiled tiger!" Anya smiled as she pointed her fingertips at the giant cats and shot a bullet at each of their skulls, the sound of the gunfire shocking the villagers before they noticed that the tigers got killed from one bullet each. But then we heard some galloping sounds coming from the north.

"Get ready, guys! It's the big one!" Maro exclaimed as we then saw a gigantic headless centaur covered in armor and wielding the largest great sword I'd ever seen in my entire life!

"You think size will help you out? Let's end this quickly! I'm getting hungry!" I exclaimed as I then tried to attack it with a physical attack, but the monster looked barely fazed!

"Looks like we'll need to lower his defenses! Take this! Groundus!" Anya exclaimed, a giant eruption of rock and stone jetting out of the ground and knocking the giant monster off balance before the rocks disappeared like her water spells. "Now you can attack it! Watch out for the sword!" Anya exclaimed.

"Gladly! Flara!" Kluke exclaimed.

"Winda!" Jiro exclaimed as well.

"Shina Sword!" Marumaro exclaimed, all of them using their moves at the same time. The giant monster got blown back and against the other side of the road's cliffs from the force of all that power! It then dissipated into thin air soon after.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," Anya smiled... before we turned around and saw that the whole village was at a loss for words.

"Um... sorry if we surprised you. We got your message, Mister Fushira. We took the shortcut through Mural Valley to get here," Kluke smiled.

"You made it... I'm proud of you, guys!... And who are your friends? This woman certainly isn't your average everyday girl to have that kind of power and guns in her fingertips," grandpa smiled at me.

"We have a lot to explain, so how about we take a rest here? We can make it to Jibral Castle Town by midday tomorrow if we leave first thing in the morning," Anya stated.

"She's right... besides, we kind of do need a bit of an explanation here. Especially from you, Jiro," Jiro's mom said to him.

"You needn't worry about your son, ma'am. With my assistance, all of these guys' magical prowess will fell even the toughest of foes. Besides, we just saved your hides from death by steel eating tiger... all in a day's work for being a guardian, I assume," Anya smiled as she then looked at her arm and frowned. I looked at it too and saw that a part of her skin was missing, revealing the metal alloy underneath.

"Y-Your arm... what are you?" Jiro's dad asked.

"I'll tell you when we set up camp. And don't worry about any interference with your sleep tonight. I'm always on guard, even in sleep mode, so any monsters coming this way will be handled by me," Anya said.

"Please, tell us everything that happened. Everyone start pitching up the tents and start a fire. I think we deserve some kind of meal for our heroic youngsters," grandpa smiled.

"No food for me, though. I don't need it... or water... or sleep... or anything really," Anya frowned, me seeing that her skin was actually repairing itself all on its own. She would probably explain everything once camp was set up. And she was right to tell them to set up camp. I could see the sky was turning red, so that meant it was nearing dusk.


	10. Ch10: Road to Jibral

**Anya POV:**

After we explained everything to the Talta Village residents, they were obviously taken aback by what we had to say. We told them of my origins and what Nene had done to all of us, the magical powers we possessed, the many giant monsters we had slain without breaking a sweat, and even about the Mural Town that we encountered in the Mural Valley.

"My word... you have had quite the long two days, guys. I think you need to rest a bit after doing all of that running around and battling," Jiro's mom smiled warmly.

"I couldn't agree more, mother. But once daylight breaks, we should proceed off to Jibral Castle Town. Our group will handle any monsters that try to attack us, don't worry," Jiro smiled at her as he then dusted off his knees and went into the tent they all shared.

"I think it's time we head to bed too... but someone needs to stay on guard," Kluke said.

"I'll do it," I said, taking the initiative for everyone.

"Don't you need to sleep?" Maro asked me in confusion and concern.

"No, that is yet another perk that being partly machine gives me. I only need about one night's worth of rest each week. I can operate for quite a long time without needing to recharge in sleep mode. And with my advanced hearing, I will be able to defend your village from any monsters without waking anyone up," I smiled in honesty.

"Is she being truthful? Because, if so, then that sounds quite scary to have someone like that with us," said the voice of Landon, who was sitting next to his wife who held her squabbling baby girl in her arms.

"I am not meant to scare others. I was born with the desire to defend others. I am a guardian. That is my way of life, much like yours is to defend your family, Landon," I smiled at him with calmness in my heart.

"You really are quite wise, Anya. Would you mind telling us how old you are?" Kluke asked.

"I am actually 34 in age. I was 24 when Nene kidnapped me, which is why I still look as young as 25. My body was unable to age due to the modifications that he made to my body... my heart isn't even real. It's an Eternal Engine, like that mural in the storytelling room of Mural Town... would you like to see it?" I asked, the group looking at me with confusion.

"Uh... I guess so," Shu said.

"Okay... opening chest cavity," I said as I then lifted up my shirt and my torso, though covering my boobs, opened up in my stomach area to reveal a large cube brimming with magical energies. "This is my heart. My Eternal Engine... before I had it inserted into me, Mystic Mermaid promised that she would stay within my soul even if my heart was not my own. She has found a way to modify the Eternal Engine so that she has an unlimited use of magic so long as it remains in my body," I smiled as everyone gawked at it. It shined with a light blue brilliancy and it even rotated slightly at the mere touch of Marumaro's fingers.

"Maro, don't do that. It might hurt her," Kluke frowned at him.

"Do not worry. Only a magical blast of overwhelming intensity can destroy my Eternal Engine, and only if it manages to go through my armored body... closing chest cavity," I smiled, my torso then returning to normal and my Eternal Engine being hidden by my metal-laden skin once more. "Trust me. I speak the full truth and nothing but the truth when I say that no monsters will harm you during your slumber," I smiled at them warmly.

"Okay. We're counting on you, Anya," Shu said to me. I smiled at him as they all went into their tents and I looked out to the north and placed my hand inside of my ear. I pushed a small button within to heighten my hearing and did the same with the other ear. I then listened intently for anything out of the ordinary. I heard some sounds of snoozing nearby, which I knew were the villagers. I also heard some wolves howling in the distance, far to the west. And then I heard what sounded to be small roars to the north. The tigers were speaking to each other before going to bed.

"I wonder what they could be planning," I frowned as I continued to stand guard until 1 AM, which is when I heard scuttling from the north. A Fat Pack Rat appeared from that area, so I simply conjured a spike of earth to skewer it from the bottom and out through his brain, the rat not standing a chance and there being barely a sound.

I then made sure to take the rat and bury it under the earth so that it wouldn't attract anymore tigers. I had to conjure earth to trap it in a ball of mud and dirt before then opening a hole in the ground to drop it in. I then repaired the ground on top and sighed afterwards.

"Hah... haven't done that for the longest time," I smiled at my powers. I kept thinking about what kind of power that Shu and his friends could gain if they could reach Corporeal status and be independent from Nene's soul. But I had to keep vigilant, which I did for the rest of the night, having to defeat two more rats and one Steel Eating Tiger before the dawn broke.

And once dawn broke, I proceeded to wake everyone up while still having my hearing up to detect any monsters. Though, one person was kind of hard to get up. "Shu! Come on, wake up! Oh, come on, how can you sleep despite me talking in your ears? Hey!" I groaned as I kept shaking Shu and he refused to wake up.

"Is he dead?" Marumaro asked.

"Let me try something," Kluke smiled. "Oh my, look at this. So many donuts!" Kluke smiled, Shu immediately jumping out of bed at that.

"What the? Who the... wait... where are the donuts?" Shu groaned, I just laughed so hard at that.

"Works every time," Kluke giggled.

"Ugh..." Shu groaned, me sensing that he still had warmth in his heart towards Kluke.

"So... did you two talk yet?" I smiled at them.

"Well, we did. We agreed that we would wait until we were both 18 before we did anything intimate, but we would be considered as more than friends starting today," Kluke smiled.

"Well, I'd say it's about time," I smirked, both of them blushing at that, though Shu still looked annoyed. "Come on, we need to help the villagers pack up so we can head off to Jibral," I said.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Once everyone packed up, our group was in charge of handling any monsters or obstacles that impeded the path to Jibral. We had to take care of a ton of Fat Pack Rats and at least 3 different groups of Steel Eating tigers. We also had to get rid of some boulders blocking the path before we finally had a clear way of passage... but then something awful happened. We had apparently angered the Steel Eating Tigers because we had gotten a whole army of them blocking our path to Jibral and our path back to the Coast Road!

"We're completely surrounded! Even with my finger bullets, this is going to be very tough," Anya said as she pointed towards the back.

"We'll help fight to the very end, if we need to," Jiro said as he and Anya let out their shadows.

"I won't give up! I'll never give up!" I exclaimed as I let out my shadow and, just as soon as Anya let out a shot, we gasped as we saw a bunch of arrows start to rain down on the tigers! And when we looked up from where they came from, we all were amazed to see a bunch of soldiers on horses with archers and swordsmen mounted on them. But Anya gasped at one of the swordsmen.. er... woman on horse back.

"So... that's where the Killer Bat went..." Anya gasped as the archers then fired some more shots before the leader gave the order to charge, attacking the tigers with his soldier companions. Some of them were swiped down by the tigers, but the female was extremely quick and powerful with her sword strikes.

"Wow!" Marumaro gawked in amazement as I got a good look at her. She had a bandanna with a skull mark on it atop her long, silver hair. She had very sharp eyes and a very buxom body, obviously around the same age as Anya before she was converted into a robot. She also wore fingerless gauntlets, a blue bra that hugged her breasts tightly, a pair of green shorts that were quite short, a long blue sash around her waist and a belt around that which contained the sword she wielded with deadly accuracy. And on her feet were long boots that were made of leather.

Then one of the horsemen approached us and looked at us with seriousness. "Are you folks alright? And from whence do you come?" he asked.

"We're alright, thanks for the assistance, sir. We come from Talta Village," Kluke said politely.

"I am King Jibral, ruler of Jibral Castle. We will assist your village in reaching Jibral safely," he said with seriousness in his voice.

"We'll protect them too!" Anya said as she let out her shadow and we let ours out as well.

"So, you have magic powers too?" the woman asked kindly.

"And your shadow is the Killer Bat. I can sense it and the fact that it has given you such incredibly speed," Anya smiled.

"Mm... I am Zola, Captain of King Jibral's Blademasters," Zola said as she let out her shadow and I finally saw why it was called Killer Bat. It looked quite fearsome with giant ears, sharp fangs, enormous arms, and a giant pair of wings attached to its back. And it had a fearsome cry on top of that.

"WOW! You are so awesome! It's Loooovvveee!" Marumaro exclaimed, Anya having to giggle and pick him off the ground.

"King Jibral, you should escape with the villagers. We will defend the back line," Zola said.

"I am counting on you, Zola," the patriarch said.

"Sir," Zola smiled as she bowed politely and quickly, Jibral and his group having a clear way now that most of the tigers were gone, same with our villagers.

"Let's deal with these bastards!" Anya exclaimed as we all let out our shadows to face the 4 different tigers. Anya immediately started by shooting one of the tigers directly in the face, her fingers red hot, as she had been shooting other tigers to get the way cleared beforehand. "Damn! My finger guns are overheating! Gotta rely on you to take these baddies out, Mystic!" Anya said as she then sent forth a Groundus spell at the opponent, doing quite a large amount of damage to all of them.

"I shall answer with an attack myself," Zola said as her Killer Bat shadow attacked one of the tigers quickly and effortlessly. After one spell of Water from Kluke, all of the tigers were annihilated and we then rushed after the caravans and managed to get into the castle gates along with them just before they closed.

"Hah... hah... we made it," Jiro panted as well as Marumaro, myself, and Kluke. Anya and Zola were the only ones not tuckered out.

"Yeah... we did," I smiled as I gave Jiro a high-five.

"You're all incredibly skilled. Especially you, miss. Honestly, I never expected that a human could have guns in their fingers," Zola smiled.

"Well, I'm not really human... see," Anya smiled as she removed her arm and Zola looked at this with a frown.

"So, you've been converted into a machine... let me guess... it was an old, purple man with a green frog on his shoulder, right?" Zola asked.

"I knew it!" Anya exclaimed as she placed her arm back in her socket.

"Knew what?" Zola asked.

"You were the one that sneaked onto Nene's airship and made off with the Killer Bat shadow! I've always wondered who would've done that, but now I finally know!" Anya smiled.

"With all due respect, I have no idea what you are talking about. I found the light sphere containing the Killer Bat just outside of Jibral's gates," Zola said, Anya gasping.

"Hmm... I sense that you are being truthful... okay... apologies for jumping to conclusions," Anya said with a worried expression on her face... but then Marumaro did something.

"Maro call you Lady Zola!" Marumaro smiled.

"Uh... 'Lady' Zola?" I asked.

"Okay? Okay? Okay, Lady Zola?" Maro smiled with enthusiasm.

"Um... sure, I suppose so," Zola smiled.

"I think I've heard about this before... Devee are fascinated by things that we'd normally view as scary, such as bats. Also, I think he admires her strength, speed, and how cool she looks," Anya smiled.

"I think that you should all take a look around Jibral Castle Town. I'll meet with you again, I'm sure," Zola said as she was about to walk away... but Anya soon stopped her.

"Wait! I still have questions to ask you! I want to know everything about you and I want to know how far along your shadow is in the Assassin class!" Anya said.

"Um... okay. You can follow me to the castle, then," Zola said.


	11. Ch11: The Tsunami Vortex

**Anya POV:**

I followed Zola all the way to the castle while asking her questions the whole way. "You say that the Light Sphere you found was outside of the town. Did it happen to be guarded at all?" I asked.

"There was a man nearby that said the sphere would grant me power to overcome stronger enemies," Zola said.

"And what did this man look like?" I asked again.

"He looked unlike anything I had ever seen before. Completely purple, his body very old, and residing in a floating chair," Zola said.

"Sorry to say this, Zola, but that man is the same one that turned me into a robot-human half-breed, froze my entire village's denizens in ice, destroyed Talta Village with a robotic Land Shark, and poisoned the Devee of Lago Village with the Miasma Bloom flower," I said, Zola stopping in place in front of the castle when I said that.

"He did all of that? Are you positive?" Zola asked.

"He hides his misdeeds by having these incidents occur during an intense storm of violet clouds that hides his flying fortress. He's killed thirty residents of Talta Village over the years and he is also the one that causes a tsunami to flood Jibral every year... and... uh-oh..." I gulped.

"What is it?" Zola asked when I said that.

"What day is it today? On the calendar?" I asked.

"The 17th of April, why?" Zola asked.

"The 18th of April is always the day that he causes the tsunami to attack Jibral!" I exclaimed.

"You don't need to worry. We are prepared," Zola said, me confused at what she meant by that.

"Um... how? How are you prepared for this tsunami?" I asked her.

"Go and get your friends. Meet with King Jibral, then we will explain the plan," Zola said.

"Okay... but before I do that, can you let your shadow out for me? I want to tell you how far along your magic is," I asked her. Zola looked at me with a smile and nodded, her letting out the shadow in the hallways of Jibral castle. And when I saw her aura, I gasped.

"Your aura... it's a rank 5 in Assassin, Rank 3 in Sword Master, Black Magic, and White Magic, and you have rank 4 in Generalist! All you need to do is reach rank 6 and then I can train you to be independent from Nene's magical soul within you!" I smiled.

"You can do that?" Zola asked.

"Trust me. I've been the owner of a magical shadow since I was 16, almost 18 years ago. I've had quite a lot of experience under my belt and I know a lot about magic," I smiled.

"I see... go collect your friends. Then I'll give you an audience with King Jibral and we'll explain the plan," Zola smiled.

"I shall do so immediately, Captain Zola," I smiled as I politely bowed and addressed her by her rank. She smiled at that as I then went off to collect my allies.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Once Anya returned to us, so insisted that King Jibral wanted an audience with us, so she led us to the throne room where we encountered the owner of the Killer Bat shadow, Zola. "Follow me," Zola said as we proceeded forward to the throne.

"I'm so nervous..." Jiro admitted.

"Yeah, I mean, it's not like we're city people," I frowned.

"Take it easy, guys. Just let me do the talking. I have experience with speaking nobly," Anya smiled calmly as we approached the throne and we followed Zola and Anya in kneeling to King Jibral.

"Your majesty, I have brought Shu and his friends," Zola said.

"Thank you, Zola. Talta Village residents, please state your name," Jibral said.

"Shu," I said.

"I'm Jiro," Jiro said.

"My name is Kluke, your majesty," Kluke smiled.

"Marumaro!" Maro smiled wildly, making Jibral smile.

"Well, looks like we have a lively one here. Tell me, how did you happen to receive your magical powers and what brings your village to Jibral for shelter?" Jibral asked. I was about to speak before Anya glared at me. I sighed and let her talk.

"They received their shadows from the one that is causing chaos across the world and are using them to try and take him down. The man in question is Nene, the last of the Ancients. He has poisoned the Lago Village Devee tribe with Miasma Bloom toxins, demolished Talta Village with a Land Shark robot, frozen all of my fellow Noluta village residents in ice, turned me into a robot, killed thirty different Talta Village residents, and I have a suspicion that he is the reason for your tsunamis that have occurred once a year... and I think this city will be his next target, as he always makes the tsunami flood Jibral every April 18th," Anya said, Jibral looking surprised at all the evil that Nene was doing, but gasped audibly when Anya said that the city would flood tomorrow because of Nene.

"Then you know of the Tsunami Vortex already... hmm... I would like to ask you to come with me," Jibral said as he got off of his seat and we followed after him to the topmost balcony of the castle, where we overlooked a large watery inlet by the sea. And in the sky were 6 cube shaped water containers in the sky.

"Is that the Tsunami Vortex?" Jiro asked.

"Yes. Every year, as Anya says, those cubes fall into the water and devastate Jibral with a massive flood that floods our streets and washes unlucky bystanders out to sea. But this time, we are prepared," Jibral said.

"How so?" Anya asked.

"Our team, 6 months ago, succeeded in shooting down a flying ship sent out by the fortress that comes from the flying clouds. And with it, we found an intact Eternal Engine and figured out how to harness its energy. When the clouds come tonight at midnight, the cubes will fall one at a time. We will send out a ship with the Eternal Engine on board to destroy the cubes and save Jibral from this madman's wrath," Jibral said.

"No, that would only make him agitated. He'll probably bring out his mothership in an attempt to flood your city with robots!" Anya frowned.

"I know, and that is our plan," Zola said, me looking at her in confusion, but Jiro smiled.

"I get it. You want to call out the Mothership so that you can trap it and have us go in there to take out the power source! That's genius!" Jiro smiled.

"It is, but that will be quite difficult. The robots in that fortress are quite strong, especially the 4 generals. Nene only calls them out in case of emergency, but they are all strong in their own right. Turbulent Mai, Heat Wave Sai, Silent Ku, and Raging Kesu. All of them are dangerous in one way or another, but with our combined magic, I think we can defeat them and I can finally get some legitimate payback on Nene for turning me into this.. this thing!" Anya growled as she pulled out her fingers and fired shots at the sky on purpose, Jibral looking at her with a frown, but letting her fire until she had calmed down.

"You're quite trigger happy, aren't you?" Zola asked.

"Only when she gets mad or when she's attacking monsters," Kluke said.

"So you say that you were turned into a robot, right? How long did the process take? Just curious," Jibral asked.

"It only took 3 months time, but he kept me aboard that ship and tried to force other codes into my body to make me a robotic maid. But he can never erase my memories... the only codes that happened to succeed were that I can only address him directly as Master Nene and I am forced to always reveal the truth," Anya frowned.

"Nevertheless, we will begin our assault tonight at midnight, then. I suggest you get some rest and join us in the battle," Jibral said.

"You got it!" Marumaro and I smiled.

"I'll set an alarm before I go to sleep mode so I can get Shu and the others to wake up in time to join the battle," Anya said.

"Okay, when it comes to midnight, I expect you to be here before the cubes fall into the water," Jibral said.


	12. Ch12: Flying Fortress Assault Part 1

**Anya POV:**

After I went to sleep and woke up at 5 before midnight, I got all of the others up to see that, outside, the purple clouds were beginning to flow into the city. "Time to save Jibral," I said as we rushed off to the castle and up the stairs to the area that we saw the Tsunami Vortex before. And when we arrived, we saw that Zola and Jibral had already sent out a ship into the sea. And I could sense magic on that ship. "That's the Eternal Engine I sense! It's enormous!" I gawked at it.

"It was big enough to power a Mechat, so it's definitely going to be powerful enough to stop the tsunami," Zola said, me looking at her in confusion.

"How did you know that was what it was called?" I asked her, Zola looking at me with a frown afterwards.

"I'd rather not explain that part," Zola frowned, me growing suspicious at that, but I kept it hidden.

"NOW!" Jibral exclaimed, the Eternal Engine lighting up immensely as the first watery cube was about to fall down, the Eternal Engine's light disintegrating the giant cubes of water without breaking a sweat!

"THAT was cool!" Shu smiled, but then the clouds above started raining down electricity.

"I think we made him mad," Kluke said.

"Ready the harpoons!" Jibral exclaimed, the doors behind us opening from three different areas to bring out gigantic harpoons with... enormous people with horns on their heads pushing them like they were nothing! They just had to be members of the Gorgo Giants!

"I've never seen a Gorgo Giant before... they look so... buff... mm..." I admitted as I couldn't help but ogle at them. They were so big and manly, but I knew that they were testy, so I looked away before I could make anyone uncomfortable. And when I did, I saw that the Flying Fortress had appeared on the horizon.

"Let's wait for it to get a little closer," Jibral said as the airship started to descend until it was close enough, Jibral giving the go-ahead to Zola.

"Aim the harpoons... and FIRE!" Zola exclaimed, everyone of the harpoons doing just that. The airship, upon getting struck with all 8 harpoons, tried its damnedest to fly away, but the Gorgo Giants were no slouches. Our group assisted the giants with the four central harpoons, using our magic and our shadows to help them reel in the Flying Fortress.

"Aerial Troops, begin your ascent!" Jibral exclaimed, our group smiling as large balloons started to rise up and two flying balloons landed for our groups to pile into.

"Let's get going! You guys are with me," Zola said as we followed her into her balloon machine. Once we ascended high enough, I noticed that the Flying Fortress tried to activate its jet thrusters, but the Giants held strong with their harpoons. Our group then shot some grapples to the top of the ship and, one by one, we flew down the cords to the bottom with me simply jumping down without using it. I managed to land with enough force to force a hole in the hull of the ship, which is what I wanted.

"Okay, that was equal parts cool and badass," Shu smiled at me. But our smiles wouldn't last long, as Nene sent out the cavalry in the form of numerous robots with drills on their hands.

"You guys get into the ship! We can handle these machines out here," Jibral said, me frowning at that as I simply approached him and knocked out a robot that was about to drill his head open.

"Not until I properly equip you for the job!" I exclaimed at him.

"What are you talking about?" Shu asked loudly, as there was a lot of fighting going on.

"You guys go on for now. I'll join up with you after I give something to Jibral! I'm going to call out his inner magic!" I exclaimed, Zola gasping at that and nodding, leading my allies below deck as Jibral looked at me in shock.

"You can really do that?" Jibral asked.

"Yes, I am, but it requires someone to be maximum level in Guardian status. Luckily, I am one of those people. Now, whatever you do, don't resist," I frowned at him as I held onto his temples and focused my magic to bring out the shadow that lay within him.

"AUGH! It's hurting!" Jibral exclaimed.

"It's only for a few seconds! Let out a loud roar! Let your magic pour out of you!" I exclaimed at him, Jibral roaring extremely loudly as a giant shadow appeared out of his back. It was one that looked like a demonic horse with large feathers on its backside and a giant horn jutting out frontwards from its forehead. "Now that you have the Qilin shadow, you can effectively fight! Don't hold back on these machines. They are built to kill!" I exclaimed at him.

"Understood. And thank you!" Jibral exclaimed at me.

"You're very welcome!" I exclaimed at him as I jumped down the same hole I made to meet up with my allies. And I then immediately ran for where I sensed their magics at.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Our group proceeded through the interior of the Flying Fortress with Zola leading the way until we came to an area that looked very large and spacious. "What are we looking for?" Kluke asked.

"Nene's machines use Eternal Engines. This Flying Fortress should be powered by them. But I know there has got to be more than one Eternal Engine to power a fortress of this size," Zola said as we then came upon a console and she simply pushed a red button, causing a diagram to appear above us and for a small dimming of light to happen for a large engine in front of us. The diagram had 6 lights and, when Zola turned the engine off, it now had 5 lit up.

"Okay, according to this diagram, there should be six altogether," Jiro said.

"Then that means five to go!" Marumaro smiled widely.

"But now we must be cautious. This machine has cameras in it, so Nene is able to see that we've infiltrated his ship. He may very well decide to call upon the Four Generals," said the voice of Anya as she appeared from behind us.

"So, how did it go in helping Jibral?" I asked her, wondering how that went.

"From me calling out the inner magic in his soul, he is now the proud owner of the Savoir Qilin Shadow. He should be able to help out his forces up there for a good long while," she smiled.

"A Qilin? What's that?" Zola asked.

"According to history books that I've read, the Qilin is a mix of dragon and unicorn that has powerful feathers on its back to make up its mane. It's main class is the Guardian Class, much like my own," Anya smiled.

"You're incredible! I wish that I could do that. You know, awaken people's shadows," Jiro smiled.

"Well, it can only be possible once you have completely maxed out your shadow's main class. I mastered mine before Nene abducted me thanks to the numerous powerful monsters around Noluta Village," Anya smiled widely.

"So why didn't you do that to us when we first met?" Kluke asked.

"I barely knew you and you still are younger than the age required for me to be able to call out your inner power. You'd need to be at least 18 or older if I were to give you your own shadows... speaking of, can you show me your shadow's aura on our way to the next engine?" Anya asked.

"Sure," I smiled as all of us let out our shadows as we proceeded out of the area.

"Okay... Shu's shadow is Rank 5 in Sword Master, Rank 4 in Generalist, and Rank 3 in Monk. Jiro's is Rank 5 in White Magic, Rank 4 in Barrier Magic, and Rank 3 in Generalist. Marumaro has ascended to Rank 5 Monk, Rank 3 in Black, White, and Sword Master Magics, and Rank 4 Generalist... Kluke, I don't know how to tell you this... you are the first one of your quintet to have attained Rank 6 in a class," Anya smiled, all of us looking at Kluke, who looked quite happy to hear that.

"I'm at the maximum rank?" Kluke smiled.

"Indeed. But now comes the hard part. Getting intense anger inside of you in order to fully connect with your Fiery Phoenix within you. Once you have reached that state of pure rage, you can finally be able to free from Nene's soul's influence," Anya smiled.

"Amazing! Congratulations, Kluke!" I smiled at her.

"I can't believe it... but what can I get angry about? I'm normally quite a calm person," Kluke said.

"Think. What was the most traumatic experience you have ever experienced?" Zola asked.

"My... most traumatic experience..." Kluke frowned as she got angry eyebrows on her face. "It was when I witnessed my parents die from the Land Shark... the Land Shark sunk them underneath the sands... and smothered them until they suffocated!" Kluke growled angrily as I could feel some slight wind pressure appearing from her body.

"And who was the cause of it?! WHO ARE YOU MOST ANGRY AT?!" Anya yelled at her. And then Kluke finally lost it.

"NENEEEEEE! ! ! !" Kluke exclaimed in absolute fury as we all then gasped as a large flume of numerous different elements surrounded her just as we got spotted by a large robot with a drill on its hand. Kluke then exclaimed again and jumped up high, all of us in shock as she summoned a giant phoenix from out of her shadow and she rode on its back with ease. "TAKE THIS!" Kluke yelled with an echo in her voice as her Phoenix exhaled a giant torrent of lava from its mouth, melting the robots into dust and also leaving a gaping hole in front of us in the middle of the floor!

"Hah... hah... What... was that... awesomeness...?" Kluke asked after panting a bit.

"Be proud of yourself, Kluke. You've just become one with your Shadow and used your Corporeal Attack," Anya smiled at her.

"That looked awesome!" I smiled at Kluke happily.

"Yeah, let's go to the next Eternal Engine. Just be wary of any of Nene's robot generals. Raging Kesu especially. She's got very sharp knives coating her body," Anya said.

"Her?" Zola asked.

"They don't really have genders, but their voices determine how we address them. Mai and Kesu are females while Szabo, Ku, and Sai are males," Anya explained.

"Okay, we'll be cautious... especially of this lava... I can't believe that my shadow could make this big a blast," Kluke gawked.

"Believe it. It just happened, right, Lady Zola?" Marumaro smiled.

"Yeah, it did... heh," Zola smiled without any kind of sharpness in her eyes. But it would soon drop as we came to a door and we were suddenly ambushed by a robot that came out of a purple sphere. It looked to be someone with a rounded head, a calm expression on its unchanging face, two guns held at either side of his torso, and he flew in the air without a sound.

"Silent Ku. Honestly, I didn't expect that you'd want to face us so early on. You probably would've let Mai do it instead," Anya smiled at him.

"Master Nene... very unpleased with you... don't worry... you will soon be... out of your misery," the robot said with his voice in a calm manner like Anya's, but a bit softer in volume.

"Very well. Let's duel," Anya said as she pointed her fingers at her sides and squared off against Ku. "One. Two. THREE!" Anya exclaimed as she quickly pointed her fingers at Ku's guns before he could even grab them and shot them out of his reach and then some more shots to his face and torso.

"Gugh... impossible... Silent Ku is... the best gunslinger..." Ku groaned as he looked quite damaged from the attack.

"I've had a decade to practice while you were trapped in containment. Now do me a favor. Die," Anya frowned as she shot him in the face once more, Ku's head exploding off of his body before the rest of it followed suit.

"That just earned you 25 badass points, Anya," Jiro smiled.

"Heh, I know. And I love it," Anya smiled as she looked at Jiro and then winked at him, making him blush afterwards, something I never saw before.

"D-Did you just make Jiro blush? He's never blushed before in his life!" Kluke smiled.

"Looks like you've found your dream girl, Jiro," I smiled at him, which I was just teasing him, but Anya could tell he was feeling uncomfortable.

"We'll speak of it after we take out this fortress," Anya smiled.

"Okay, I'd like that," Jiro said at that.


	13. Ch13: Flying Fortress Assault Part 2

**Anya POV:**

Our group proceeded to shut down two more different Eternal Engines and also defeat Turbulent Mai in the process, who was just as sadistic as she was when I was first introduced to her by Szabo... when she was still contained in a capsule with the rest. Even if I met someone once, there was barely a chance that I'd forget their names or faces. And once our group returned from turning off the third Eternal Engine, we were jumped by none other than Heat Wave Sai, whose body was incredibly large and fierce, having four mechanical arms, a belt filled with rechargeable bombs, and a constant angry expression on his face.

"Oooh! It's the traitorous android that Szabo mentioned! Traitors to Master Nene make me SOO MAD!" Sai exclaimed, just as hotheaded as always.

"I never betrayed Nene, Heat Wave Sai. He kidnapped me and converted me into a monster against my will! I never asked for it and I don't ever want to think of him as the one who created me! I was born in Noluta and that's how it will always be, no matter what he says! Now let me show you why you do not mess with Anya Sinda!" I exclaimed at him as I summoned forth Mystic Mermaid and used Flarus on him, making sure to aim at the bombs on his left side, Sai gasping as the bombs exploded and it left a gigantic hole in his left side.

"Rgh... such power..." Sai groaned as he tried to hold onto his left side with one of his arms, but Zola had already closed the distance and commanded the Killer Bat to slash off the arm he tried to use, grabbing onto his other arm on the same side and slamming him into the wall. "Guh... im... possible..." he gasped before his entire body exploded soon after.

"Very possible. Let's continue. Only 3 more Eternal Engines left to go. We need to hurry before Nene starts to attack the castle," I said.

"Agreed," Jiro said as we continued down the hall and took out some more robots along the way, not stopping until we got to the next Eternal Engine. And once we got it disabled, we were surprised that Raging Kesu hadn't appeared yet. But then we continued down the halls some more until we came upon something the others were hesitant to try out.

"What's this?" Marumaro asked.

"This is a warp device that is used to get to the next Eternal Engine room. All of us should get on it at the same time," I said as we all got onto the device and we then warped to the correlating pad in the room with the Eternal Engine in question. After proceeding down the stairs, we were about to get to the engine control panel before a certain robot crashed the party. And who could it be other than Raging Kesu, her appearance making the others look at her questionably, only because she liked to hide her sharp knives.

"Hello there, AM-" she was about to say before I smacked her with a bitch slap from Mystic Mermaid.

"THAT IS NOT MY NAME AND YOU DAMN WELL KNOW IT!" I exclaimed at her angrily.

"Oh yes, how could I forget. That is the name Master Nene gave you after he converted you. I must say, however, I never expected you to retain independence, young Anya. But it is of no matter. I have been told by Szabo that you and your friends must be killed before you were to succeed. Which of you should I assassinate first?" Kesu smiled as she showed the knives inside of her wrist cuffs and the others gawked at them.

"You will be the one to be eliminated, Kesu. We already handed the other Generals' asses to them on a golden platter, and we'll do the same to you... like this," I smiled widely as I then forced my powers into the metal underneath her and she gasped as I sent a giant flume of metal to rise in a pointed spire to skewer her body from right below her.

"Y-You... have magic... how...?" Kesu asked as she was still kicking, but on death's door.

"I've had it with me long before I got kidnapped by Nene. Just let go. It will all be over soon," I said to her, Kesu looking at me with a glare before her body failed and exploded, me letting down the spire soon after.

"Again, plus 25 badass points," Shu smiled.

"Much obliged. Let's take out the next Eternal Engine," I said as I pushed the button on the control panel and it turned off, me also looking at the camera for the outside area connected to it and gasped. Nene was beginning to rain down explosives into the cliff side of Castle Jibral!

"Okay, now we need to split up. From here, the warp pad on the right will lead to the final engine. The one to the left leads to the Loading Docks. I can sense Nene's life force is there. Zola, you go turn off the last engine. Once you do so, the warp pad up the stairs there should lead to an emergency escape hatch to the top of the castle. We'll take care of Nene," I said to her.

"Understood. You be careful," Zola said to us.

"And you take care as well," I said to her, though I had to be sure not to tell her my suspicion towards her comment earlier. How the hell did she know that the ship in question was a Mechat if she had never seen one before? It made me curious, but I still put my trust in her that she would defend Jibral.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

Once our group managed to get to the loading docks, we were shocked to see Nene was there and he was trying to escape in a flying ship with Szabo blocking our path to him. "Master Nene! You won't get away with this!" Anya exclaimed at him, her coding making her hiss when she had to call him Master again.

"Hmm... It seems my selection... wasn't all for naught..." Nene simply smiled sadistically as he got into the ship slowly while Szabo blocked our path.

"Let me through, Szabo! Nene has to pay for these horrific crimes!" Anya exclaimed at him.

"Hmph. You know as well as I do that his excellency is doing the right thing," Szabo said, me growling at that while Anya simply sent out Mystic Mermaid and bitch slapped him across the face.

"Is murdering innocent people the right thing to do?! Is freezing all of my village's residents and not even bothering to tell me the right thing to do?! Is poisoning an entire village just for laughs THE FUCKING RIGHT THING TO DO?!" Anya exclaimed angrily as Kluke got mad too and, just as soon as Szabo pushed a button for the flying ship to shoot off into the distance, Kluke then did the same thing she did before.

"CORPOREAL ATTACK!" Kluke exclaimed as she let out the Phoenix from her shadow and this time, instead of producing lava, she hopped on the giant bird's back and told it to slice apart Szabo's metal body with its talons. We were all in shock when Szabo was reduced to a pile of scrap metal within seconds.

"Okay, now we need to go after Nene. I'll call for a Mechat from this Loading Dock and then we can use it to go after Nene," Anya said.

"This time, I'm taking the wheel," Shu said.

"Fine, do as you wish. I'm going to be flying myself. I'm going to try to take out Nene's ship my sheer force if I must," Anya frowned as she placed a hand on her chest and sighed deeply. "Activating flight mechanics... rocket launchers engage," Anya said as we saw a Mechat come to the docking area and we saw that her feet actually morphed into jet thrusters and her shoulders gained two large appendages that had numerous homing missiles on them! "Forget 25 badass points, this is plus 100!" Kluke smiled.

"You guys get in the Mechat. I'm going to fly," Anya said as she jetted off and we soon got in the Mechat. Once I turned it on with my magic, I focused and we jetted out and started to follow Anya to Nene's location. His ship soon appeared on radar and Anya proceeded to attack Nene with some magic on her person as well as the rocket launchers on her shoulders, Nene looking to be taking the heat before he decided to try and send missiles at Anya, which she shot down with some machine gun blasts from her fingertips. We continued to trail Nene until, eventually, he disappeared into the clouds, Anya looking shocked as she then proceeded to the Mechat and boarded it as well.

"DAMN IT! He hid his life force from being detected the moment he got in those clouds! He's going to be escaping to the north... GOD DAMN THAT MADMAN!" Anya exclaimed as she fired her finger guns into the air with a shout before Jiro grabbed her shoulders and she seemed to try to calm down.

"Keep it together, Anya... we'll get him back for this, I promise... Shu, take us back to Jibral," Jiro said.

"Right," I said as I turned the ship around and headed back to Jibral. And once we did so, we were all smiles when we saw that everyone was cheering at the Flying Fortress sinking into the sea below us.

"We took out his Flying Fortress... but the battle is not yet over," Anya said.

"Oh come on, Anya. We can at least see if we can enjoy ourselves with a celebration," Kluke smiled.

"Celebration? Yay! I can show the Devee Dance of Celebration there!" Marumaro smiled from below deck.

"Oh... oh what the hell, okay. We can have some spare time for a celebration. I'm sure Jibral will be glad to have us," Anya smiled after cooling down, her guns seeming to be hotter than her mind was right now from all the bullets she used.


	14. Ch14: A Gift of Pure Happiness

**Shu POV:**

The party was quite fun and had tons of food that everyone but Anya ate. She did, however, help herself to some electrical power from some of the static electricity caused by all of the walking around, as she said that she needed a recharge after the incident. Zola then told us that King Jibral had to have a word with us, so we followed her to his throne room after the party had ended.

"This battle is not yet over," Jibral said.

"I know this already. Nene has escaped to the north. That is where he has all of his main headquarters. They include the Mecha Base, the Laser Fields, and the Ancient Factory. We'll need to prepare for the journey ahead and then proceed due north immediately," Anya said.

"Of course. And we have had some debate, and I think that Zola should go with you when you proceed north," Jibral said.

"Happy to have you along Zola," I smiled at her.

"I know that I'll feel safe with all of you backing me up," Zola smiled.

"Okay. We should prepare for the trip ahead. We'll also need a good night's sleep, as we didn't get much last night," Jiro said.

"Okay, let's go get it done," Kluke smiled.

"Yeah! We get to go battling with Lady Zola!" Marumaro smiled wildly. We then proceeded to the shops and bought a lot of items we could use, including magical medicine, regular medicine, cure all, and some Phoenix talons for good measure. We then decided to have some sleep and we all slept at the inn... but at night, I suddenly gasped awake from the sound of something falling nearby. I then noticed that Zola wasn't in her bed and that Jiro had been woken up by it as well.

"Jiro, did you hear that too?" I asked him with a hushed voice.

"Let's see where Zola headed off to," Jiro said to me as we went out to search for Zola. We decided that Castle Jibral would be where she would most likely be at, and we eventually found both her and King Jibral in the 2nd floor garden conversing. We kept out of sight while listening in.

"I want to give you something to assist you in the battles ahead, Zola... this ring is a family heirloom. It contains a gemstone that will greatly enhance your power. I would like to ask you to put it on... as a memento to know that you have my full support," Jibral said with kindness in his voice, me and Jiro oohing at it. Zola then smiled and put the ring on her ring finger, Jibral looking a bit spooked at that.

"Z-Zola.. Wait," Jibral said.

"What is it, your majesty?" she asked.

"Um... it's just... putting the ring on that finger is a symbol of marriage," Jibral said.

"But your highness, it's the only finger it will fit on," Zola said. But I could see her smile even from here. She may have acted like she didn't care about these kinds of things, but it was obvious that she felt romantic feelings for Jibral.

"Hey, Jiro... you thinking what I am?" I asked my best friend.

"What are you thinking?" Jiro asked as we walked away quietly and made sure not to alert Zola that we were watching her.

"I was thinking... maybe we could go to that fancy jewelry store and we can make some rings to give our girlfriends," I smiled at him.

"Um... girlfriend?" Jiro asked. It was then that I revealed the hard truth to him.

"Come on, Jiro. We all know that you and Anya are perfect for each other. And she's the very first person to have ever made you blush that wasn't your parents! I think I can make one for Kluke and you can make one for Anya," I smiled at him, Jiro looking to be a bit anxious but finally sighed.

"Okay... fine... I do like her. I guess I could do that with you. Let's go make some jewelry," Jiro smiled, finally giving in to the truth. We then went to the fine jewelry store and saw the guy was in charge and looked at us with a smile.

"Ah, it's the young adults that helped defend Jibral from the Flying Fortress. What can I help you with?" the storekeeper asked.

"We were hoping to make some rings for our girlfriends," I smiled.

"Ah, young love, I see. Of course, we can do this. Would you like me to show you how to do so?" the man smiled.

"Sure, how do we do this?" Jiro asked.

"Well, I will offer each of you one gem of each type we have here. Each one has a different magical property to it and a price that matches it. You will each start out with 100 gold to start making gems. And when you refine a gem, you may get special dust that I will give you money for. The jewel making process ends when you run out of available funds or when you each are out of gems to use. Choose wisely," the man smiled.

"Okay, let's do this," Jiro smiled.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

I didn't expect that I would be rudely awoken from my sleep mode at 5 in the morning, but Jiro kept shaking me until I woke up, me looking at him with a groan before I finally got up and looked at him. "What's up with you, Jiro?... I was sleeping," I groaned as I stretched my bones and metal arms.

"I wanted to give you something... because... well... I really like you," Jiro said, me looking at him like he was crazy... but then I gasped when he presented a special ring that I gasped at the magical nature of it.

"My god... did you make this especially for me?" I asked him with a smile and tears in my eyes.

"Yes. Shu and I got the idea when we saw King Jibral give Zola a ring with magic in it. He made a ring for Kluke and this one is for you... it even has a special inscription on it," Jiro smiled, me looking at it closely and smiling at the message.

"You are special, Anya. But I want our love to be even more special... Love... Jiro..." I smiled as I then started to blubber uncontrollably before wrapping my arms over Jiro in pure joy. "Jiro... I accept... though I will outlive you... I will never forget this moment..." I smiled at him.

"I don't care about that, Anya. I just want you to be happy," Jiro smiled at me. That only made me sniffle and cry happily some more, everyone in the room waking up and smiling at me while Marumaro looked confused.

"What's wrong with Miss Anya?" Maro asked.

"I... I'm just... so happy..." I admitted truthfully as I placed the finger on my ring finger and then closed up the gun that was on it. "I will never take this ring off nor will I ever fire another bullet from this finger... it is my love finger from now on..." I smiled happily as Jiro hugged me back and I felt his lips smooch my cheek. "Pure happiness... I haven't felt this kind of joy... for so long... I thank you... Jiro... I love you," I smiled at him happily as I felt my emotions rise and I felt Mystic come out of my shadow to join in the hug.

"I'm so happy for you, Anya..." Mystic smiled, no one surprised that she was able to speak.


	15. Ch15: The Underground Robot City

**Anya POV:**

Once we completely got up at 6 in the morning and after I had finally found my true love in Jiro, we all proceeded out of the castle with a new determination in our hearts. That and I smiled at how Kluke was wearing her ring proudly on her ring finger, same with Zola on hers and mine on my own. "Let's proceed north. We'll need to go through the Laser Fields first. And they do not have that name for nothing... though what the lasers are caused by, Nene never really mentioned to me. All he said was 'look to the skies'," I said.

"We'll be prepared for anything," Kluke said as we proceeded to the north and into the canyons that led to the Laser Fields, handling some bigger enemies along the way until we reached the fields themselves. And when we did, we gasped at what we saw.

"Look at these holes... these must be caused by those lasers. Proceed with caution and stay close," I said.

"Agreed," Zola smiled as we went forward and, after we walked forward a bit, we encountered some enemies that fled from us because they could sense our powerful magic. They were moles that had wings. After proceeding deeper and having to defeat some Horned Lazy Bears, some pyrotechnic rats with fuses for tails, and even a couple of armored tortoises, we got over the hill and I looked in the sky, already seeing something dangerous. There was more than one moon.

"Wow! So many moons! Moonlight! Moonlight!" Maro gawked at them. But I already knew to be wary, especially when one of them moved.

"Zola! Stealth tactic, right now!" I exclaimed at her. Zola gasped and did just that, her and our group then disappearing from sight as the giant moon turned the whole way around and we rushed forward, dodging a giant laser that was sent forth from it as we then rushed forward and I gasped. They were still shooting at us despite our visibility being hidden! "GOD DAMMIT! They've got heat sensors! They're sensing our bodies through our body temperatures!" I exclaimed in anger.

"How are we going to get out of their range?" Shu asked in frustration.

"Just keep running and don't stop!" I exclaimed at my allies. We then rushed forward through the canyons until I gasped as I saw a strange hatch open up and I saw a robotic hand emerge from it. One that I recognized as being from a servant robot! "Quick! Into that hatch!" I exclaimed. No one dared to question me as we then rushed to the hatch and jumped inside, the hand retreating as we entered the area and I saw that the owner was a servant robot that looked a bit on the medium size.

"It's kind of dark in here... this could be a trap," Zola said.

"Excuse me... mister servant robot?" I asked, the robot looking surprised at me and Shu about to run after him before I grabbed him by his collar.

"Hey, let go of me," Shu complained.

"If he was going to harm us, then why would he have let us in that hatch to escape those dreadful lasers? Think logically, Shu. I don't think he's going to hurt us. Is that right, mister robot?" I asked him, the robot then emerging before us and looking at us.

"Follow me," he said as he then proceeded out down the hall, our group following him, but me making sure to keep my eyes on Shu in case he tried anything funny. We then saw some other servant robots and we were presented with a door opening to reveal a large underground city!

"Oh my... it's an entire underground robot civilization... amazing..." I gawked aloud.

"We're so glad that you and your group is safe," one of the robots said, him being a bit smaller than the others. He looked like a healing module.

"Thanks for the assistance. So... what is this place?" Shu asked.

"We have created this underground city to match one of the ancients' many cities. But we haven't had anyone to serve in so long. If you would be so kind as to allow it, we would be happy to serve you," the small robot said.

"Well... sure, I guess so. After all, from what... he... said, servant robots are designed to cater to your every need," I said, looking away when I said the word he. I was referring to Nene.

"Did you hear that everyone? It's been a long time since we have had any visitors, so let us try our best to be hospitable," the smaller robot said.

"Yes, sir, boss!" the servant robots all said, me noting that the one that saved us had dispersed for a large building on the other side of the place. I proceeded to lead my friends to the area in question, seeing that the robot in question looked at us again upon us following after him.

"Excuse me... I don't believe we've been properly introduced, have we?" the robot asked.

"No, we haven't. Thanks for saving us from the Moon Lasers. I'm Anya, this is Shu, Jiro, Kluke, Marumaro, and Zola. What's your name?" I asked him.

"My name is 61," the robot said, me looking at it with a sigh.

"That's right... I forgot completely that robots have numbers for their titles instead of real names... well, how would you like a name?" I smiled at him.

"I'm afraid that my master may not like that," 61 said.

"Why is that?" Kluke asked.

"I'll show you," the robot said as he led us to a large computer with a war mech robot statue on it, a giant screen above it, and the symbol of the ancients underneath the statue.

"I'm guessing that this monitor used to be used to communicate with your former master?" I asked him.

"Yes... though we have not had a proper master in over 10 thousand years. We await here for a new master to show up because waiting is also one of our protocols," 61 said.

"Well... I still think that you should have a proper name. Besides, I'm also a robot and I have a name. It's Anya Sinda," I smiled.

"Anya... Sinda? And you say you are a robot like us?" 61 asked.

"I am. I'll prove it to you, even," I smiled... but then, before I could prove anything, the door behind us opened an a tall, skinny robot emerged from it, him having a very mean face on him.

"61!" he growled angrily, his voice matching his face.

"35?" the friendly robot asked.

"What are these visitors doing in the sacred temple? They are not supposed to be here," the mean robot said.

"Um, pardon, but no one told us that this place was off-limits nor did anyone stop us from entering. Besides, you should be kinder to your fellow automaton," I frowned at him, the others looking at me with a smile.

"You are not supposed to be here! Leave now before I throw you out," the mean robot growled at us as he tried to come after me, but I simply stood in place.

"Go ahead, I dare you. Then we'll see who is the superior model," I smiled as I then gave the command to my protocols. "Rocket launchers, engage," I said, my shoulders producing said launchers and the robot stopping in place once he saw them.

"What is this? You have the appearance of a mortal, yet you have metal jutting out of your shoulders. Tell me, what is your number?" the mean robot asked me.

"I don't have one. But if you must know, the one who turned me from human to robot, whom I hate with a burning passion, gave me the model name AM-A. But my real name, before he forcibly converted me against my will, is Anya Sinda," I frowned at him.

"You have given yourself a name despite you being a mech? You have violated protocols," the mean robot said.

"Who said I was violating protocols if I don't even have to answer to them? Literally all of the programming my creator gave me failed in working and I am still who I was before being converted. The human guardian of Noluta Village, Anya Sinda," I frowned at him as I then grabbed onto his hand and tossed him into the wall, shocking everyone, including 61.

"How does it feel to have your ass handed to you by a girl?" Jiro smiled widely.

"I order you all to leave now!" 35 exclaimed as he got up, me simply smiling and looking at my allies.

"Do as he says, guys. His ego is bruised enough. Want to come with, 61?" I smiled at him.

"Of course," he said as he followed us out of the temple and we then started to converse again.

"That robot was a real jerk. 35 or whatever he was," Marumaro growled.

"You know what? I think I know what I should call both you and that mean robot," I smiled at 61. "Using the ancient words of Noluta, you are Yasato, which means 'pure of heart.' And 35 is now Hineto, which means 'tainted heart'. It shows that you are nice while he is a jerk," I smiled at the friendly model in front of me.

"Yasato. Is that my new name?" he asked politely.

"Yes, that is your new name. Do you like it?" Zola smiled.

"I do like it," he smiled as Hineto then exited the temple again.

"You are still here?" he frowned at us.

"Shut it, Hineto," I frowned at him.

"What did you call me?" he asked.

"Hineto. That's your new name. It means 'tainted heart.' Congrats, asshole. You earned it," I frowned at him.

"Illogical. My number is 35," Hineto frowned.

"Please, do not be rude to our guests, Hineto," Yasato said, me smiling at that.

"Did you just call me Hineto, 61?" Hineto growled at his brother robot.

"And 61's new name is Yasato. Both are true. His name means 'pure of heart' in Noluta," I smiled.

"And I did call you Hineto. Isn't it wonderful to have a name all of your own?" Yasato smiled.

"I am reporting this to one!" Hineto said, obviously upset and frazzled because he had a bit of a worried tone in his voice when he said that.

"Peh, what a snitch," Shu frowned.

"It is quite alright... in fact, I was thinking that all of you could be our new masters," Yasato smiled.

"Well, 'master' wouldn't apply to me, as we are fellow automatons. We can just be considered friends," I smiled as I held out my hand with a smile, Yasato shaking it with his grip pincers, which didn't hurt at all, as he was quite a gentleman.

"We can be your friends too. Besides, it's good to be independent instead of having to wait for a master that will never come," Shu smiled.

"I like the sound of that. Friends, much like my Master used to call me," Yasato smiled.

"He sounds like a really kind Master... did he perhaps have purple skin on him all those years ago?" I asked him.

"Indeed he did. It is the same with all people of the Ancients. And how did you know he had purple skin?" Yasato asked.

"Because we know of an evil ancient that is destroying places and hurting people in this world. We're trying to reach the Ancient war Factory to stop his plans. And we also want to try and destroy those awful Moon Lasers before they can be used to hurt anyone else," I said.

"Both of those are noble goals to combat a person of evil," Yasato smiled as we then bid our goodbyes and we looked around for a bit before one of the robots approached us.

"Greetings. I am number 99. The door leading to the Underground River is now open. It will lead you to the Ancient Factory while protecting you from the dangerous Moon Lasers," the robot smiled.

"Sounds great!" I smiled... but before we could continue...

"However, there remains one hurdle. A barrier gate blocks the way to the Underground River past this door. I believe that the device used to turn off the barrier is hidden in the temple basement, but only those with magic can hope to obtain it," 99 said.

"Magic? Is that all? Let us at it, we can use magic amazingly well," I smiled widely.


	16. Side Chapter: Questions about Anya Sinda

**Questions and Answers about the Main OC**

**Who is Anya Sinda?**

Anya Sinda is 34 in age and is the former guardian protector of Noluta Village. During her teenage years, she developed the Mystic Mermaid Shadow after witnessing a monster attack and hurt her mother badly, prompting her to defend her parent. And at age 24, she was abducted by Nene and converted into the first humanoid cyborg.

**Why did Nene abduct Anya Sinda?**

Nene abducted Anya solely for research and because he could sense some power within her body. He abducted her in her slumber and began to change her interior body to be completely robotic, save for most of her head.

**What powers does Anya Sinda have?**

Anya, being the owner of the Mystic Mermaid, has vast amounts of magic in numerous classes while being maxed out in Guardian Class. She is able to cast healing spells, Black Magic spells, and tons more different attacks with her magic, including her Corporeal called Tidal Wave Slam. Other than that, through her mechanical enhancement, Anya also possesses rocket thrusters in her feet, machine guns with unlimited ammo in her fingertips (though they do overheat if overused), rocket launcher units hidden in her shoulders, unbelievable super-human strength and durability, and the ability to close all orifices on her face to prevent unwanted diseases or other dangerous chemicals to enter her body.

**Why does Anya Sinda speak so fluently?**

Being born into a noble family, Anya was taught to be extremely polite and ladylike even from a young age. She very rarely loses her top, but if she does, she is not pleasant to be around. Her vast vocabulary comes from her days studying at the town's library, where she also learned numerous facts about the world through history and geography books as well as fluent in most spell books, even before she gained her magical powers.

**What is Anya's relationship between Nene and the Robot Generals?**

Anya has a very pessimistic attitude towards Nene, despite being programmed to always call him her master. These feelings stem from being kidnapped for over a decade and her discovery of what Nene really does to the innocents on the planet. Anya does, however, hold some respect for Szabo, though she keeps it hidden within her. She hates the four Robot Generals due to all of them being sadistic and cruel, hating none more so than Heat Wave Sai. She does, however, have a rocky relationship with Raging Kesu, possibly considering her as the only General that could remain calm and speak to her on her own level.

**What is Anya's relationship with the heroes?**

Anya is very kind to Shu and the others and acts like a caring protector to them. She wishes to help them be free of Nene's influence from the spheres they had to consume before escaping Nene's Flying Fortress. She has deep respect for Jiro and considers him as more than just a friend, a point that was made when she accepted his ring after the defeat of the Flying Fortress. She also has admiration for Marumaro and his bravery, as well as enjoys his dancing and joining in some of them herself. She is suspicious of Zola due to her having the missing Killer Bat Shadow and her knowledge about Mechats despite saying she never saw one before. She tends to Shu like a mother would and thinks of herself and Kluke as best friends over time.

**What is Anya incapable of doing now that she is a robot?**

Due to becoming part robotic in most of her body, Anya now has an Eternal Engine for a heart, has no blood vessels, and has metal lining all of her bones, including the exterior of her skull, just under the skin, except in the area around her eyes and nose. She never needs to use the bathroom or needs sustenance, since the Eternal Engine's magic provides all the nutrients her bones and brain require. She also can go at least a full 6 days without needing to get any rest, which she needs as a sort of recharge to her Eternal Engine. She also is incapable of having children the natural way, but is able to use the magic within her body to create a child with anyone that also has magic in their bodies. However, she is hesitant on thinking of children in any way, due to the fact that her body is now eternally young and she will never age or die of aging.

**What does Anya look like?**

Anya looks like a young woman with C cup breasts, 5 foot 4 inches in height, and having a curvy frame with strong thighs, muscles in her arms from training nonstop, and having hair on her head of purple that is held in place with a ribbon and is neck-length in pigtails. She is dressed in Ancient armor from head to toe provided by Nene, which she uses as an extra set of protection for her Eternal Engine. Luckily, she takes it off during her time in the Devee tribe's village and opts instead for a chain mail shirt that she can lift up at any time while also protecting her. She still kept the armored pants, however, which had pads in the kneecaps and holes within the bottom of the shoes that would allow her to fly with her jet thrusters without hurting the shoes themselves. She has round, large eyes with green irises and a small nose. Her lipstick is a bright red and she applies lip stick every time she awakes from sleep mode. On her shoulder is a satchel that contains numerous items, including the spell books that contain all the spells she knows of.


	17. Ch16: Blazing Kirin and Lovely Necklace

**Shu POV:**

After we learned that the barrier wall was up, we then went back into the temple and, after angering Hineto and passing him into the basement without even looking in his general direction, we came across Yasato at the bottom and in front of a big door. "Hey, Yasato," I smiled at him.

"Hello there, friends. What can I do for you?" Yasato asked politely.

"Do you think you can open the door? We need the device to take down the barrier wall that leads out to the Ancient Factory," Anya asked politely as ever.

"But of course, though I must tell you, only our master, with his magic, was able to use the machine," Yasato said, our group proceeding forward with him and us gawking when we saw a giant machine in the center of a large room.

"Whoa... that machine looks very impressive... this must be the control panel... just press a few buttons, and... wait..." Anya said, gasping when the screen turned red and a face appeared on the screen. "SHIT! I knew it wouldn't be this easy! Get ready guys, there's a monster coming that guards the device!" Anya exclaimed, us preparing ourselves as the machine opened up and a giant robotic horse emerged from the machine with flames on its mane and tail.

"Looks like a fiery horse! Try to put out the flames!" Zola said as we then proceeded to use water based attacks on the giant horse robot, managing to put out the flames with just a few Watera spells and swords.

"Okay, fire's out, now let's attack with brute force!" Jiro said, Marumaro smirking as he charged up a Watera Sword with his shadow and Anya simple attacked with a powerful physical attack which managed to knock the giant horse onto its side from the sheer force of the attack.

"WATERA SWORD!" Marumaro exclaimed, attacking the robot's underbelly with the attack, which managed to rip right through it and demolish its Eternal Engine, the monster exploding soon afterwards and the barrier device falling out of it completely unscathed.

"Okay, so we just press this button... and that should do it!" Anya smiled as she pushed the big red button and the device made it so the blue barriers in the room had disengaged, allowing us access to the treasure chests that were beyond them.

"Amazing... could it be that you are..." Yasato said, me smiling at him?

"That we're what?" Kluke asked him with a smile.

"That you are truly the best masters that I could ask for?" Yasato said, me smiling at that.

"If that's what you want, sure. We can be your masters from here on out," I smiled at him.

"All except me. We're just fellow robots, no need to call a fellow robot your master," Anya smiled at Yasato.

"It's a deal," he said warmly.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

After dealing with the Blue Barriers, we then proceeded through to the Underground River and, when we did so, I immediately smiled at how we were in an area with one of the best monsters that could be used for experience. "Look... Kelolon monsters. They are very timid and tend to run away, but not when someone stinks like no tomorrow... they are the best monsters to farm for experience and their advanced version, the Kelolon Defenders, were one of the main reasons I was able to max out my Guardian class... let's get after them, but only after I put this on one of you," I smiled as I got out a collar that looked a bit raunchy to the others until Kluke saw a tag on it.

"Is that a dog collar? Where'd you get it from?" Kluke asked.

"I got it from one of your fellow villagers in Jibral. She had a little dog on her and she gave me this collar as it was too big for her puppy. Put it on, and you will stink like the monsters do, allowing us to battle them without fear of them fleeing," I explained.

"I'll wear it. Maro's nose less sensitive than yours," Marumaro smiled, me smirking and putting the collar around his neck. And when I did so, we were soon being surrounded by Kelolon from the north, which was amazing. "Okay, time to attack them. Beware of their magic. They can turn you into a Kelolon if they so choose," I warned everyone as we proceeded to attack the Kelolon and other monsters on our way through the Underground River.

And after proceeding for quite awhile, we then came upon a door that looked mechanical and we also saw a familiar face that I smiled at. "Hey! It's Toripo! Good to see you again, friend," I smiled as we approached him and he looked at us and smirked.

"Ah, it's Anya and her friends once again. What can I do for you today? Fine wares, fine wares indeed... and a special gift for you specifically, Anya," Toripo smiled, which made me excited. He almost never gave things away for free, so I was quite interested. He then pulled out a very cool necklace that had very colorful beads on it, but I then saw that it had a picture frame on it. I smiled at him and decided to ask.

"Where did you find this?" I asked him.

"It washed up on the shores on the outskirts of Jibral shortly after the feast yesterday. I believe it came from that giant flying airship that you demolished. But when I wore it myself, I ended up getting attacked by tons of lasers in this nearby canyon. I barely escaped with my life, even after getting hit by one. I think it bad luck, but it may give you better luck, as you are more experienced in magic than my Simple Centipede is," Toripo said, the others looking at him in confusion.

"Simple Centipede? You can use magic too?" Kluke smiled.

"That I can, though I prefer only to use it when exploring. It tends to frighten those without magic," Toripo explained.

"Okay... let me see that necklace. Thanks for the gift," I smiled at him, Toripo giving it to me and me then looking into the picture frame. I then audibly gasped at what I saw within.

"What is it?" Jiro asked.

"This is no ordinary necklace... Nene never mentioned that he had someone he loved... look!" I said, showing the picture to my friends. They were astonished beyond all compare. The picture inside was of a young Nene standing next to a very cute and kind-looking female Ancient with a large turban on her head. And there was a heart around them as they stared at each other lovingly. "It's got an inscription too... 'to Himiko, with eternal love. I go now to my frozen sleep. And yet my love for you shall never lose its chill. my heart will be warm with the thought of you...' heart Nene.." I gawked, amazed that Nene could even feel the emotion of love in the past.

"I don't understand this... why would Nene do any of these things if he once was kind enough to be in love with someone?" Zola asked. I simply frowned and put the necklace around my neck.

"I don't know, but I'm going to let him see me wearing this necklace and when he gets angry, as I'm sure he will do, I'm going to ask him if he thinks this Himiko of his would like who he has turned into. Then we'll see what he does," I said with a frown.


	18. Ch17: Ancient Factory and a Sacrifice

**Anya POV:**

Upon entering the door from underground, we were shocked when we happened upon what looked to be a factory with war machines beeping around us. "This must be the Ancient Factory... Nene's power is here... somewhere... I can feel it," I said with a frown.

"These machines sound like the servant robots, but they are actually machines of war. You can tell by the weapons they have," Zola said. But as soon as we took one more step forward, the entire place lit up and we gasped as all the machinery started to clock into overtime and started to produce robots once again!

"Hell no! If Nene makes anymore robots, his army will be unstoppable! We need to find some way to shut off these machines!" I said with a frown.

"But how?" Shu asked. I then looked around and gasped when I happened to see a machine that was combining the robots into the war mechs, minus the Eternal Engines. "Let me try something here... time to demolish this with our combined muscle! If we can take this machine out, then we can prevent any of these mechs from being mass-produced," I said.

"Got it. Let's do it!" Kluke said as we all let out our shadows and we all used our strongest attacks on the machine at the same time. And when all of the attacks hit it, the machine exploded and I smiled at how it had a jam inside of it from a War Mecha Robo that was trapped inside.

"Hah! That's that done, now to neutralize these shield enemies," I said as we attempted to attack one of the machines and we gasped at how it had a strong, red barrier on it! "Crap! We can't damage it with this current barrier. We need a red variant! Let's try to find a way out of here and a red barrier device to boot," I said, our group rushing past the creatures and jumping over one of the conveyor belts and into a hallway. Upon entering it, we took out some alarm enemies without being detected and proceeded forward some more until we came upon a room that had an enormous tower.

"This tower looks tall enough to take us up to the surface. Should we climb it?" Jiro asked.

"How about I go ahead and jet up there and I'll let you know?" I asked them.

"Sure, we'll wait here," Zola said, me then activating my jet thrusters and rushing up the stairs and ramps until I got to the top, me seeing that a shield robot was guarding the door, but it looked unfinished from the fact that it was short-circuiting. I simply punched it's head off and smiled as I got the device it had on with ease.

I then opened the door slightly and looked out of it, smiling at how it was a wide open green clearing outside. I proceeded back down the ramps and yelled at the others. "Hey! The top reaches outside to a meadow! Come up here!" I yelled at my allies.

After waiting for a few moments, my friends eventually reached me and I smiled as I presented to them the red barrier device I had obtained. "Where'd you get that?" Shu asked me.

"From this defective robot. He wasn't even a challenge. Now let's get out of here and try to find Nene," I said, our group proceeding out and into the meadow and me smiling as the light graced my eyes. But it wasn't going to stay that way for long. Soon, we all gasped as the ground started to shake rigorously and we saw a giant fissure open up to the north, our eyes becoming stupefied when we saw a giant swarm of War Mecha Robos appearing from the fissure and surrounding us.

"They don't know that the war has ended! If they get loose, they'll kill everyone!" Kluke said with concern and worry. I, however, sensed another presence. One that, though still a good two miles away, I could sense was controlling these robots.

"Show yourself, Master Nene! I know you're the one pulling the strings here!" I exclaimed, the robots then stopping when I said that and Nene's face appearing from one of their heads on a small screen.

"Nene!" Shu growled lowly.

"You insolent pests are very lucky to have made it this far. But I'm afraid that your time is up. Attack!" Nene said, me glaring at him as I then waited until the opportune moment and, just before the robots could get within range, I activated the red barrier, our group being protected from the robots, their bodies simply exploding when they touched the barrier.

"Okay, so long as this barrier is up, we can outlast these robots. After all, we did shut down production," Zola said.

When she said that however, Nene looked confused, turned around from the camera and gasped audibly. "You dare to disrupt my plans again?! Very well. I have other ways of getting you to surrender," Nene said as he then had the War Mechs move and I gasped at what happened next. The servant robots from the underground city soon appeared, all of them walking in a straight line and me gasping as they then started to walk into the barrier.

"ACK! Master Nene! Stop this right now!" I exclaimed at him, having the barrier device in hand, though it shook with anger and anticipation. All of my allies, through our Kelolon slaughtering spree, had gained rank 6 in their main classes, so they needed to get angry.

"And why should I? They answer to me," Nene said with a sadistic smile.

"Is this what Himiko would have wanted?! Would she have wanted you to kill all of these innocent servants?! YOU YOURSELF MADE THEM!" I exclaimed, Nene looking at me with a gasp when I said the name Himiko.

"Halt!" Nene exclaimed, all the servant robots stopping in place at his command, Yasato appearing to still be in control and him not even moving forward once he saw our group. "Where the hell did you hear that name?" Nene snarled at me.

"Notice this necklace I'm wearing?" I frowned as I pointed to the jewelry I wore and Nene gasped at it.

"Where did you get my Himiko's necklace?!" Nene growled at me.

"When your Flying Fortress sank into the water, an explorer found this necklace while walking along the shoreline of Jibral. If you have any decency in your heart, do not let these innocent servant robots die! Himiko would not have wanted you to be a murderous madman! This picture says it all. I know you have love in your frozen heart, so show fucking compassion and leave these servant robots ALONE!" I exclaimed angrily.

Nene looked taken aback by this, but his frown soon furrowed into a scowl. "Leave my darling Himiko out of this! She isn't even around anymore! She is lost to the seas of time! I'm the last of my kind and I am the one who should rule this world!" Nene exclaimed.

"Just because you are the last of your kind. Just because you have a disease. just because this! Just because that! ENOUGH with the excuses, Master Nene! If you had any morality in your idiotic heart, you would know that you don't have to do these horrid actions to help you find a cure for your disease! Slaughtering innocents in Talta Village? How the hell does that help you find a cure? Freezing all of my Noluta villagers in ice! How does that help you out or benefit you in any fucking way?! I have a feeling that, if Himiko were alive today, she'd fucking kick your ass for being such an evil, uncaring, unsympathetic BASTARD!" I exclaimed angrily as my allies then finally snapped.

Nene looked shocked as I simply let down the barrier and I cast a spell on all of the servant robots that were in front of me. This spell was different and I had come up with it myself. Now, for at least 10 minutes, they would be impervious to any kind of damage that my allies could dish out. I couldn't say the same for the War Mechs.

Shu's Corporeal happened first, his Blue Dragon appearing from out of his shadow and flying over the group of enemies, firing giant balls of fire at all of the war mechs, doing massive damage to a good portion of them. Then it was Jiro who used his Guardian Minotaur to reach out his hand and snag all of the Servant Robos to our side to protect them from harm. Next was Marumaro, who attacked the War Mechs with a charing Saber Tooth that knocked them far off into the distance. The only one not to get a corporeal attack, however, was Zola. She just didn't feel the right anger to utilize her Killer Bat.

And when all the dust cleared, only one War Mecha Robo remained. And it was the one that had Nene's face on the screen. "Do us all a favor and stop doing these horrible actions, Nene! We're going to kick your ass for every single person you've hurt!" Shu exclaimed.

"Hmph. ENOUGH TOMFOOLERY!" Nene exclaimed as I saw something shocking. All of the War Mecha Robos that we had defeated suddenly regenerated their bodies and limbs out of thin air!

"Impossible!" I exclaimed aloud.

"Hmph. Seize them!" Nene exclaimed. It was hopeless. We just couldn't fight our way out of all of these baddies. I simply sighed and put the red device in my pocket, Yasato looking at us with worry as all of us got grabbed by the robots and we were then knocked unconscious... everyone, that is, except me.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

It didn't take long at all for me to realize that, when I woke up, I was placed in a jail cell of sorts. And then I saw a face in front of me that I couldn't be happier to see. "Shu, we need to get going. I already got the others thanks to Yasato's help, but Kluke's cell isn't anywhere nearby," Anya said as she pried open the bars of my cell door and I simply walked out a free man, all of my allies except Kluke on the other side.

"How do we proceed forward?" I asked her.

"There's a door to the north of us that will open if all the cell doors are closed except the middle ones. I already have the keys, but I had to keep your cell doors close. Prying the bars keeps the doors closed, while remaining open at the same time," Anya said.

"Smart thinking. Now let's go save my girlfriend," I frowned as we then proceeded out of the room and to the north, entering the large door and proceeding forward, taking out numerous robots along the way until we got to a hall and Anya had us press against the wall.

"Master Shu, friend Anya. It is I, Yasato," said another voice I was happy to hear as Yasato appeared.

"Thanks for the assistance earlier, Yasato," Anya said to him.

"You're welcome. By the way, Master Nene will be here soon," Yasato said, Anya gasping as she heard Nene's voice and she had to tell everyone to shush as I then looked over the corridor to see what was happening. And when I did, I gasped inaudibly as I saw Nene tell a War Mecha Robo to go into a cell and carry out an unconscious Kluke! I frowned as Nene proceeded out of the hall and to an open area, me seeing that there was an absence of Hineto anywhere nearby. We followed after Nene and rushed at him when he got to a circular arena.

"Master Nene! Let her go right this moment!" Anya exclaimed at him. Nene smiled at her with a sadistic chuckle.

"And why would I do that?" Nene smiled.

"Your soul inside her? She's independent from it. Even if you remove it from her, she still has her own power. You don't need her for any fucking reason!" Anya growled.

"Is that so?... Well then, it seems that I may have a use for her after all," Nene smiled at Anya, me looking at his eyes as I saw evil in them, the room then flooding with War Mecha Robos!

"What are you implying?! What are you going to do to her?!" Anya growled in fear.

"I'm going to make her into the android model that you never could be, AM-A. I think I'll call her AM-K. Her name is Kluke, right?" Nene smiled, me gasping as I let out my inner rage once again. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!" I exclaimed as I let out my shadow and tried to punch Nene in the face, him gasping as I actually got through his defenses and he seethed in pain and rage.

"You... hurt me. Impressive, for a child. But I'm afraid that our little game must end here," Nene said as he then had his eyes glow and we all gasped as the War Mecha Robos then all combined into one, slowly but surely, until the giant Mecha Robo was completed, it being just a bit smaller than Castle Jibral!

"LET KLUKE GO NOW!" Anya exclaimed as she activated her jet thrusters while all of the rest of us latched onto the giant robot's feet as it then proceeded to climb out of a hole at the top. Anya attacked the Mecha's body with her shadow and her rocket launchers at least twenty hits each, but for some odd reason, the Mecha Robos inside kept healing the giant formation each time she did damage!

"I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HURT THIS INNOCENT GIRL! HIMIKO WOULD NEVER ALLOW THIS! LET HER GO!" Anya exclaimed, the giant robot stopping in place after it had gotten itself out of the factory. We then gasped as Nene, his pet frog, and Kluke being held by one of the Mecha Robos emerged from the head of the machine. "If you say one more thing about Himiko, I will simply kill her right here and right..." Nene was about to say before Anya did something so incredibly dangerous that she deserved a thousand badass points. She used some kind of warping skill we hadn't even known of before and switched her bodie's position with Kluke's, her falling onto the snow below and us immediately corralling her and getting her away from the giant robot.

"You..." Nene growled lowly.

"Hmph. If you want someone to kidnap, give that treatment to me, Master Nene. I've already been your captive before, so just go ahead and take me again. Leave Kluke out of this! She lost her parents to you and she would not be easy to turn, as she is quite feisty," Anya frowned at Nene, me looking at her with a frown as Nene simply scoffed.

"Fine, you'll have to do," Nene growled as he then disappeared into the giant Mecha Robo once more and it got up, walking through the tundras before jumping over a large gap and escaping to the west.

"Rgh... S-Shu..." said the voice of Kluke, making me immediately rush to her to see if she was okay.

"Kluke! I thought you were a goner!" I exclaimed as I hugged her tightly, her hugging me too.

"W-Where's... Anya?" she asked.

"Nene was about to kidnap you so he could turn you into an android. But Anya saved you and decided to take your place as Nene's hostage. She's a strong-willed fighter and quite ballsy. That much I can admit to. I certainly wouldn't have done something like that... hmm..." Zola said, obviously troubled about something.

"Lady Zola... is something wrong?" Marumaro asked. Zola then sighed and looked at us with obvious tears running down her face.

"I feel that I should explain something to all of you... let's try to find Pachess Town. We may find a way across the crevice if we were to help their villagers. I'll explain what I want to on the way there," Zola said, all of us wondering what she would have to say to us.


	19. Ch18: Pachess Town's Plight

**Shu POV:**

"You see, I wasn't really being honest when I said that I found the Killer Bat Shadow on a whim. Though it was out in the outskirts of Jibral, it was Nene who appeared before me and gave it to me willingly after he saw me slaughtering enemies that were trying to invade Jibral, those being some more Steel Eating Tigers," Zola explained, me in awe at what she was telling us.

"You mean you actually were working for Nene at some point?" Kluke asked.

"Nene kept close tabs on me, as I was the most powerful with the Killer Bat and he looked pleased with the results. But then I met you guys... when I heard of what Nene really does to people from the Talta villagers and Anya, I knew that Nene was not the good guy. I kept to myself most of the time, but I warmed up to you guys when you fearlessly joined me in taking out the Flying Fortress. Especially Anya, who Nene never even mentioned before. I could actually see it in her eyes when I mentioned the name of the flying ship was a Mechat. She was suspicious of me from that moment on, but still trusted me enough to let me take out the final Eternal Engine," Zola said with a frown on her face, as per usual.

"Does Nene know anything about this?" Jiro asked, though I could tell by his expression that he was upset at not being able to defend Anya from Nene and how we were powerless to try and help out Kluke.

"As far as Nene knows, I still work for him and he still thinks I intend to give him a leg-up if he so decides to become stronger by absorbing your powers through the light spheres he has in you and myself. But after Anya's sacrifice back there... and after King Jibral gave me this ring... I'm not going to stand idly by and let Nene continue with his mad quest. When the moment is right, I'll use my Corporeal attack with all of the anger that I have towards Nene. And then, once I have become one with the Killer Bat, I'm going to cast his spirit of the Killer Bat out of my body and toss it into the deepest, darkest ocean I can find," Zola said with a sternness in her voice.

"Whoa... you really are mysterious, Lady Zola," Marumaro said, him still gawking at her despite having this information told to him. We eventually found what looked to be a town up ahead, but something was immediately off when we saw it.

"The whole town... it's covered in a green barrier! Could this be Nene's work?" Kluke asked.

"My guess would be yes. Let's see what we can find out... and if we can even go through the barrier," I said as I then touched the barrier and I gasped at how I fell right through, the others joining me in the process. When we got inside of the barrier, I frowned at how the entire village had a green tinge to it from them being confined in a cube of green energy.

"Let's ask around and see what we can find out," Zola said. When we approached our first townswoman, however, she was quick to look at us with worry.

"Did you just come in here from the outside world?" she asked.

"Yeah, we did," I said.

"Well, that was probably the worst thing you could've done. Anyone who enters this town through that barrier is unable to leave... it's all Nene's fault," she frowned, me seething at the name Nene again.

"Nene... he did this to your village?" Jiro asked.

"You say you've encountered him before?" the woman asked.

"Have we encountered him before? He killed 30 people in my village, poisoned Marumaro's village with a Devour Forest flower, turned a Noluta villager into a robot, and attempted to flood Jibral Castle Town all in the span of 10 years," I frowned angrily.

"He turned a Noluta Villager into a robot?... We actually have a Noluta resident right here in this village... the item merchant. He'll tell you if he's heard of this woman before," the townswoman said, us nodding and going to the item shop. And when we saw the person, we immediately asked him the question.

"Excuse me, but one of the townsfolk said you were originally from Noluta Village, right?" Kluke asked him.

"Yes, that would be true... haven't left this place for 9 years, though... I wonder how my little Annie is doing..." the man said, me pondering about that.

"Annie... her full name wouldn't happen to be Anya Sinda, would it?" Zola asked, the item merchant gasping at that.

"Oho! You say you've seen my Annie somewhere? Fine young woman, isn't she? Raised prim and proper ever since she was a wee one. So how'd you meet her?" the merchant asked. I sighed and then told him the hard truth.

"We met her when we were abducted by Nene almost a week ago," I said, the merchant gasping at that.

"What?... You saw her with Nene? That wretched fiend! What has he done to her to make her side with him?!" the man exclaimed.

"He didn't side with him. She was also kidnapped... though we escaped unscathed because of her assistance, she... on the other hand..." Jiro frowned.

"What?... Come on, tell me. I can take it..." the item merchant said, worry strewn on his face.

"Nene turned her from a human into an android," Zola said, the merchant gasping at that. "Almost every nook and cranny of Anya's body is now completely robotic. The only parts that aren't are her eyes, her mouth, her brain, and her bones. Everything else is either made of metal or has weaponry in it..." Zola sighed.

"M-My poor Anya... why would he do this to my poor little girl?!" the shopkeeper exclaimed.

"But that's not the worst of it... from what her friend Toripo said when she first reunited with him in Gul Mountains, shortly after she disappeared from Noluta Village because of Nene, everyone in the town was encased in icy prisons, their bodies unaging and immovable," I sighed.

"THAT BASTARD! It's bad enough he's encased Pachess town in a barrier we can never leave from, but now he does this to my village, my wife, AND my DAUGHTER?! HHRRAAAGGGHH!" the shopkeeper exclaimed as we were about to check on him before we gasped as something came out of his backside. Something blue. We all then gasped as the creature came out of his backside and we smiled at how he didn't even realize that he had it.

"What are you staring at?!" he asked angrily.

"Um... turn around... something just happened to your shadow," Kluke said, Anya's dad doing so and gasping when he saw his shadow. It was now in the form of a centaur with a flail in his hands.

"My word... no wonder Anya was able to become a magic user... I have it too..." he gawked as he looked at his shadow in awe.

"Um... I hate to ask this of you, but do you happen to know anyone who might know how to defeat that barrier? Anya kinda needs our help right now," I said.

"Oh! Of course! Go speak to the town's elder! His house is at the very top of the hill. Tell him you wish to rescue Annie Sinda from Nene's clutches and you need to remove the barrier to do so. He will tell you what to do from there," Anya's dad said.

"Thanks, we're heading out right away," Zola said, our group rushing out of the place faster than a Snakeface in heat.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

I knew very well where I was, even when Nene had my eyes blindfolded when he led me to a cell room. I was in his fortress, which was almost impenetrable to anyone who dared to enter it. But I knew that the others would come to rescue me, so I simply took it like a champ and went wherever the robots were leading me to. They then took the blindfolds off of me and I was pushed into a cell that I frowned at. The interior of it was a green barrier, one that my allies didn't have. And I knew that only the robots and Nene would be able to enter and exit it without hassle. I, however, was stuck in place.

"So, you finally decided to show up," I heard a voice from behind me say, which is then that I discovered that my cell had two doors. One that led out into one hallway, and the other cell door was leading to a containment unit for the Four generals. And the one speaking to me currently was Raging Kesu.

"I should've known that Nene would rebuild you four from the ground up. He just can't leave well enough alone when it comes to you four and Szabo," I frowned.

"Hmph. I don't really wish to share a cell with you, traitor, but we are forced to share it. Do you want to converse for old time's sake, or are you still miffed about being captured again and being permanently rooted for a change?" Kesu asked.

"I know I'm rooted right now, but I'm the only one that Nene got. The others are still out there, almost all of them having become one with their shadows. When they come for me, I'm going to bust out of here and take the fight to Nene," I frowned at her.

"I know that all too well. But we are still built and are made to follow Master Nene's instructions forever. So tell me, why do you hate Master Nene so much?" Raging Kesu asked. I felt my neck and saw that I still had Himiko's necklace on me, simply taking it off and opening the pendant on it to show the picture within.

"Does this female Ancient look familiar to you at all, Kesu?" I asked her. She looked at it for a bit, not taking it away from me before something jogged in her pointy, metallic head.

"My word... that's Master Nene's most revered servant... one that he said he viewed not as a servant, but as a love interest... where did you find this necklace?" she asked.

"My trader friend found it after the Flying Fortress sank into the sea. He gave it to me just outside of the underground entrance to the Ancient Factory, saying that it was bad luck... honestly, I think that just might be the case, considering the predicament I've gotten myself into," I sighed at her.

"If you would like, I could try to talk to Master Nene about how he viewed Mistress Himi-" she was about to say before I stopped her with a simple "No." "Why not?" she inquired.

"Master Nene hates it whenever someone asks about Himiko. I mentioned Himiko's name to him constantly when he was trying to attack us both outside the Ancient Factory and in the Ancient Prison. He even said that he would've killed Kluke if I mentioned Himiko's name once more while he had her in his clutches... he didn't factor into the account that my mastery of Mystic Mermaid allows me to have created brand new spells he's never seen before. Like a spell that prevents any and all incoming damage to allies for 10 minutes and a spell that allows me to trade places with anyone by warping our bodies to each other's locations... but if I'm in a barrier, that doesn't seem like a good place to try and do that spell," I frowned.

"Well, why don't you try it out and see what happens?" Kesu asked.

"Couldn't hurt, I guess... hmm..." I frowned, as I tried to think of who I could swap places with that I didn't like. I then eventually decided on Heat Wave Sai and tried to cast to spell to swap with him... but I only warped to the edge of the green barrier, right next to Kesu's face. "Damn... it didn't work..." I sighed.

"You may as well get comfortable, here. With the size of this fortress, it'll probably take awhile for your friends to reach this floor, if they even manage to cross the ravine," Kesu frowned. I remembered that ravine. It was near where Pachess Town was. I simply sighed and placed my hands together.

"Shu... Kluke... Zola... Maro... and my lovely Jiro... I hope you will find a way to help me..." I sighed to myself, Kesu knowing well enough to not say anything as she left the door. I needed some alone time and she was kind enough to respect that, despite her title saying otherwise... the other ones, however..

"HEY! It's that traitorous bitch from before?! OOH You are going to get it now, sweet stuff! Gahaha-OW!" Sai exclaimed the last part when Kesu slapped him across the face.

"Kesu, what was that for?!" Sai growled angrily.

"Leave her alone... She's had enough for one day," Silent Ku said, me smiling at how even Ku had a soft side to him.


	20. Ch19: Pachess Town Underground

**Shu POV:**

After our group met up with the elder, he showed us something that we were amazed with. "What's this machine?" I asked when he led us to a secret tower behind his house and we saw a strange machine in there.

"This is a machine that Nene said would be able to remove the barrier... but before we could use it, he took the key component out of it and tossed it down this hole, saying that if we were brave enough, to go inside and get it ourselves... but when anyone we sent down there never returned, we refused to let anyone else venture down there," the elder said.

"And what's up with this drawing on the wall? We saw something similar to it in Mural Valley," Kluke asked. I then saw the mural myself and saw that it was the bio-genetic weapon that Anya talked of.

"That is the monster that is said to have annihilated the Ancients over 10 thousand years ago... the war was big and the magic users with more power created and raised a creature that they thought would bring an end to the war with their victory. But it began to devour the war, engulfing any Ancient and Mecha into its gaping maw and not stopping its devastation once... only by the fire on the moon was it able to be sealed and vanquished... but the fire's wrath flew across the Earth in the process, killing every single Ancient in the process... minus one..." the elder said.

"Nene," I frowned.

"We'll go down there and get that device... h-hey! Marumaro!" Jiro exclaimed when Marumaro pushed a button on the machine and we gasped as we heard a loud bang from above us. We then looked up and gasped as we happened to see that the button push actually caused one of the Moon Lasers to attack the barrier for a few seconds before it turned around again.

"I get it. The last piece of this machine will allow us to control the Moon Lasers. With enough force of the lasers attacking the barrier, we can eliminate it in one go!" I smiled.

"The way down that hole is dangerous and is home to a miniature factory within. I suggest you be careful when venturing down there," the elder said. I smirked and let out my shadow, him in awe at it.

"We'll be safe. We have magic ourselves, thanks to Anya," Jiro said.

"I see... stay safe. I await your return," the elder smiled at us. We then proceeded down the ladder into the area in question and, when we got to the area he said there was a factory, we saw that there were monsters in there. There were robots, fire-based jellyfish, and even some red skeletons. We especially had to be wary of the skeletons as they had a nasty attack that, if it was successful, would force our minds to tell us to attack our friends while sapping away our magic at the same time!

"Damn! Those skeletons are a real pain in the ass!" I groaned.

"Not as big a pain as those jellyfish, though. They keep powering themselves up by lighting themselves on fire and absorbing it!" Zola growled.

"Yeah, this is getting a bit rough... think you could heal us up, Jiro?" Kluke asked.

"Yeah, I got it," Jiro said as he used Zephyra on our party as we found a switch in the room we were in. We pressed it and we heard a sound come from the eastern side of the factory. "Let's investigate," Jiro commanded as we all went after him and we saw that the switch seemed to alter the conveyor belt's travel. We simply rode it to the other end and disembarked at the stairs, continuing forward until we got to a large door. And when we got past it and a few more Red Skeletons, we walked forward some more before we were suddenly ambushed by a very large and imposing monster.

It was nearly as big as the giant fire horse was, but this one had 8 giant spider legs, a spider's body, armor coating it all over, and the upper half looking like a skeleton with a glass dome covering its face. This monster also wielded a giant scythe in its hands that looked quite sharp and deadly. "Don't let that scythe touch you, no matter what," Kluke said.

"Gotcha! Devee Dance... OF CORPOREAL!" Marumaro exclaimed as he then kicked off the battle with a bang, using the Corporeal status he had built up from fighting all the skeletons on our way here. The Saber Tooth came out of his shadow and charged faster than a lightning bolt at the giant spider skeleton, doing a ton of damage to it while also shattering the glass dome on top of its head.

"Nice work, Marumaro! And you invented a brand new dance on top of it!" I smiled at him as I then attacked the head of the giant spider with a Flarus Sword, managing to do some more damage to it and hurting the monster even worse.

"I'll end this right here!" Zola exclaimed as she took the field and stood right in front of the scythe-wielding spider robot. "For all the people that Nene has tortured, hurt, maimed, and killed! For all the people of Jibral, Lago, Talta, Noluta, and Pachess, I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Zola exclaimed as she then exploded in power and her Killer Bat emerged from her shadow. And when it came out, it proceeded to hurl giant balls of electricity at the giant spider and, while it was stunned, the bat let out a massive laser out of his mouth that made the spider explode in amazing fashion, the blast actually making a miniature earthquake as we saw a device appear from the rubble, it being completely unscathed despite the massive explosion!

"Whoa, these little things sure are frickin' durable, aren't they?" I asked when I picked it up.

"Well, if they were built to withstand a blast of that kind of force, I'm sure they could stand up to anything... let's go back to the Elder and remove the barrier," Kluke said.

It took a bit of walking to return to the elder and he smiled when he saw that we had retrieved the device. Jiro then placed it into the machine in the slot that it fit in and, once he did so, he input some commands into the machine as a camera was displayed from it. We then smiled as he pushed a button and held it, all the moons turning onto the city and beginning the barrage of laser projectiles. We had them do it for at least a minute before we saw the barrier disappear completely. And the moment that this happened, Jiro let go of the button, no lasers passing through the barrier and attacking the town.

"Whew... we did it," Kluke smiled.

"Let's go outside," the elder smiled as he looked into the sky and formed the biggest smile ever. "The blue sky... at long last, we are finally free," the elder smiled as we proceeded to the town and everyone gathered around.

"What's going on... what's with the sky?" one of the citizens asked.

"The barrier has been removed, thanks to these fine heroes here," the elder smiled.

"S-So... we're finally free?" one of the female villagers asked.

"Yeah! So what are you doing standing around? Come on, you can leave the village now! We got to go save our friend!" I smiled, our group rushing forward as well as some kids chasing us with happy expressions on their faces, which I smiled at.


	21. Ch20: Rescuing Anya

**Shu POV:**

After we finally left Pachess Town, we tried to figure out a way to get past the large crevice in our way. But then, when we approached a rock pillar that was very tall and wide, we gasped as lasers from the moons started to fire down on it, our group having to retreat a few feet to prevent getting hurt! But when the dust cleared, we saw the rock pillar lean forward and make an accessible bridge across the gap with a thundering boom.

"This is my way of saying thank you," said a voice behind us. We looked back and I smiled at how it was the elder of Pachess Town.

"Quite a loud way to say thank you, that's for sure," Kluke smiled, which made me chuckle.

"I think that you should have this before you go. Such technology is beyond my comprehension. I'm sure that your group can use it better," the elder smiled as he handed us the device we got from the spider robot.

"Thank you, sir," I smiled.

"Also, I have a message from Mister Sinda. He said he's going to go to Noluta Village and wait for you guys outside of the village. He wants you to rescue his daughter so he can see her face again," the elder smiled.

"Don't worry. Tell Mister Sinda that we'll not only save Anya, but the world from Nene's wrath," Jiro said. We then bid farewell as our group crossed the stone bridge and proceeded to the north. "Where could Nene have taken Anya to? That remains to be the main question," Jiro asked as he looked at the map and frowned. The area we were in was pretty spacious, so we had to choose on a destination.

"Well, I say that we should proceed to the north. Nene once mentioned that he has a giant fortress in the northwestern part of this continent that he keeps well-hidden. If we go there, we may find Anya," Zola said. We nodded and proceeded in that direction, also encountering some monsters along the way that were right at home in the frozen tundras. There were ice mages that attacked with water spells (though our defenses were pretty ridiculous now, so it barely made a dent), giant mammoths, ghosts that hunted said mammoths, and even some strange star-shaped enemies that had powerful spellbooks on them that, sadly, disappeared with them when they were defeated. But then we came to an area that was immediately of interest. It was a giant sand pit and we happened to see the giant robot within it!

"This could be a trap, but I don't care! We need to save Anya! Let's go!" Jiro exclaimed as he did something he didn't normally do. He rushed headfirst into the sandpit with all of us following after him. When we got to the robot, it started to slowly rise out of the sand pit, our group feeling the ground quake as it did so. It only stopped when the entire robot's torso was readily visible and we saw Nene appear from the top of it with an unconscious Anya in his grasp!

"Anya! Nene, let her go right now!" Jiro exclaimed. But he simply smiled.

"What the hell is so amusing about seeing us care for her safety, you bastard?! Let her go right now, or I'll take her from you by force!" I exclaimed at him, Nene's smile still there as he simply commanded the robot holding her to drop Anya from the top of the robot! "Don't worry, I'll catch her with an updraft!" Kluke exclaimed as she used her magic to make a small wind emerge from underneath where Anya fell from, allowing Jiro to rush in and grab her before she could collide with the ground.

"Anya! Anya, wake up! Come on!" Jiro exclaimed, seeing that the necklace was missing from her and in place of it was a strange collar he'd never seen before. I'd never seen it before either, and Zola looked confused about it as well. "Nene! What is this collar?! You better not have stolen her ring along with that necklace!" Jiro exclaimed at Nene. When he said that last bit, though, Nene's scowl appeared.

"I stole HER necklace?! That necklace belongs to my Himiko and it is staying with me!" Nene exclaimed angrily. Jiro didn't listen and tried to wake up Anya by shaking her a bit, Anya's eyes opening slowly as she then looked around in confusion.

"Rgh... J-Jiro?... Is that... you?" Anya asked.

"Anya! I'm so glad you're alright!" Jiro smiled as he tried to hug her, but he gasped when something accidentally shocked him.

"What was that?" I asked as Anya then looked at the collar she wore and she turned from groggy to alert in the blink of an eye.

"Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no! Not this thing! Get it off of me, quick!" Anya exclaimed in extreme worry, our group trying to do so, but when I grabbed the collar, I gasped when it sent extremely powerful electricity through my body.

"What is this thing?!" I asked her through the pain. I then looked up at Nene and saw he had pulled a remote out of his hand. He pushed a button and the collar started to blink and beep a red light.

"SHIT! FUCK! AND ALL KINDS OF DICK!" Anya exclaimed, me surprised by how she was swearing like a sailor. She almost never did that unless she was extremely worried or extremely scared.

"What have you done to Anya?!" Kluke exclaimed at him.

"You better try your hardest to reach me and get this remote, children. There's a bomb in that collar she's wearing. In about 59 minutes, it will explode, and her along with it," Nene said, his voice far away, but we heard it in our heads.

"A BOMB?! You ARE GOING TO PAY! MARO MAKE YOU PAY!" Marumaro exclaimed angrily.

"Come on into my fortress. If you can make it to my quarters within the hour time limit, you can still save your robotic friend..." Nene smiled, our group then being whipped up by a large flume of sand as the Jumbo Mecha Robo rose up and, when the sand cleared, we gasped as a giant sphere suddenly jutted from the sand that was at least 40 times bigger than the Mecha Robo!

"He's got a lot of stuff, doesn't he?" Kluke gawked as Nene and the robot disappeared into the top of it and he sent out a staircase for us to climb to go inside.

"He's inviting us in? Big mistake," I said.

"Don't worry, Anya. I'll save you no matter what!" Jiro said to Anya. She simply cried and clung to him with tears in her eyes before getting out of his grasp.

"I know I haven't said this to you guys... I'm scared beyond all belief right now... if this collar explodes, even with my robotic enhancements, it will still decapitate me and kill me on the spot! We need to get to Nene as soon as possible and pray that he'll keep true to his word," Anya said with concern in her eyes.


	22. Ch21: Long Chapter for Nene's Fortress

**Anya POV:**

We wasted no time whatsoever in rushing through the first part of Nene's giant fortress, me seeing that the place was actually as straightforward as you could get for a fortress's design. It was not maze-like at all and we proceeded through with almost zero effort. My allies had all gotten stronger, that much was a fact.

"How did you get here so quickly?" I asked them with honesty.

"We helped Pachess Town escape from a Green Barrier that Nene had activated to trap all the citizens inside... including someone that you care for deeply," Shu said, me looking at him with expectant eyes.

"W-Who was it?" I asked when we went through a door and we emerged into a magic-filled area. It was one of Nene's simulations.

"It was your dad," Jiro said, me gasping and bursting in joy as we rode a floating platform to the battle arena of the simulation.

"EEE! You met my daddy! Is he doing alright?" I asked in glee.

"Well, he was extremely pissed at Nene when we told him what he did to you and Noluta, as he had left Noluta a year after you disappeared. Apparently Noluta didn't get frozen the moment you were captured. And when he got super ticked, he gained something. Something cool," Kluke smiled.

"You mean... he has a shadow too?!" I smiled widely.

"Yep. He's got a centaur shadow," Marumaro smiled.

"Awesome!" I exclaimed... but once I said that, I gasped as we felt a rumbling from below us and we gawked as a creature emerged from the sands that the others knew and hated.

"Land Shark!" Kluke exclaimed.

"So this is what it looks like," Zola said with a gaze of uncertainty.

"I just knew that Nene had more than one at his disposal! Time to attack!" I exclaimed as I let out Mystic Mermaid and used her sheer strength to attack the giant robot fish with a punch powerful enough to crush a defending robot's shield! And when I did so, the Land Shark then changed its tactics and turned into its battle-form, the others shocked at this while I simply stood strong.

"Okay, time to use our power!" Jiro exclaimed as he used a Flarus Spell, making the giant robot start to heat up heavily while we all continued to pelt it with fire-based attacks. I quickly learned what they were trying to do as, after I attacked with a Flarus Sword attack, the Land Shark overheated and fell to the ground, exploding after one more fire attack by Kluke.

"Alright!" Marumaro exclaimed happily as a strange light show then occurred before a green light started to mist upwards.

"This will take us closer to Nene," I said as we all boarded it and went up, me seeing on my watch that it had been 10 minutes since the bomb had started to count down. "We only have 50 minutes left, let's hustle!" I said as we rushed forward some more, slamming our way through the next bunch of enemies and not bothering to stop and say goodbye before we entered another door and into the second simulation, us seeing that it was incredibly stormy and I saw someone on the battle arena that looked quite advanced in tech since I'd last seen him.

"Szabo... you got quite the enhancement, I see. Did Nene outfit you with those tacky turrets?" I asked him.

"My body simply needed repairs since the last you defeated me. Master Nene saw it fit that I should have a second chance to stop you," Szabo said.

"That sucks," Shu frowned.

"It is how he does things. To those he views as useful, he gives them all a chance. To anything he views as useless or beneath him, he wants destroyed or killed," I frowned as Szabo then snapped his metallic fingers and he was then joined by all of his fellow robots... and I immediately smiled at the complete absence of Raging Kesu.

"What the?! I told you that when I snap my fingers, all 4 of you come to help! Where the hell is Raging Kesu?" Szabo asked angrily. I then gasped as he got his answer from a single blade plunging itself into the supports for his turret base, Szabo gasping as it fell and exploded, the other three robots looking shocked as well.

"Kesu! What's gotten into you?!" Mai exclaimed angrily.

"I now know the truth about Master Nene's plan. He doesn't want to rule the world. He wishes to destroy all of it! Kill every single person and creature that calls this place their home! I may be named Raging Kesu, but I have more morality than that madman at this point!" Kesu exclaimed as I quickly used a spell on her to prevent her from taking any damage. And just in time, too. Nene immediately tried to send a blast of magic at her and she gasped at how it didn't faze her one bit!

"What?! Die traitor!" I heard Nene hiss through the intercoms as he tried to fire more blasts at her and Kesu simply did the work for us. She attacked all of the other robots and Szabo until only we and she remained.

"Bah! If that's how you want to do this, Kesu, so be it! I can always make another clone of you in the future! Join the scrubs if you want, what should I care?" Nene growled as the warping mechanism appeared soon after.

"Kesu..." I looked at her with a smile.

"Hmph. Your group better not try my patience, Anya. If they do, I will not hesitate to hurt them," Kesu frowned angrily.

"Okay, you heard the knife robot. No testing her patience. Well, lucky for you, we're trying to reach Nene before this bomb explodes! Let's go now!" I exclaimed at her as we went through the warp device and got to the third floor, Kesu then saying something that made me very mad.

"That necklace isn't a bomb, you dunce! It's designed that, when the timer goes up, it will sap you of all of your magical ability. The only way to stop it would be to use a Corporeal attack," Kesu said, me stopping in place and curling my fist up before laughing like a mad woman.

"Is that all? Hah! So Nene was just forcing us to feel pangs of emotions once again... YOU HEAR ME, MASTER NENE?! I AM GOING TO TAKE MY METAL FISTS, WRAP THEM AROUND YOUR NECK, AND FUCKING CHOKE YOU UNTIL YOU GO TO HELL!" I exclaimed at the top of my lungs as we then encountered some more robots in the next room and I then used my Corporeal attack right then and there. Mystic Mermaid emerged from my body and, when she did so, the collar on my neck snapped off and, once it landed on the ground, made a miniature blast that barely fazed me, rendering the collar useless. But what did Mystic and I do then? Basically attacked the robots with no mercy and annihilated all of them with a single punch that carried the force of a 50 foot tidal wave!

"Hah... hah... that... was... awesome..." I said with a smile on my face.

"Are you okay, Anya?..." Jiro asked me with worry.

"Never been better. Now let's get to Nene so I can make him pay," I said calmly this time, our group then walking forward as if nothing happened... but I could tell they were all a bit frightened at my sudden outburst of crazy I had. "By the way... sorry if I scared you there... I tend to have a crazy side if someone really grinds my gears... figure of speech," I said, the group then smiling at the dumb joke.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

After our group made it past another 'simulation' as Anya called them where we demolished all but one of the Moon Lasers with the green device we got from Pachess Town (and Anya being very jealous when Jiro was the one to use it with ease) we then smashed our way through the next area filled with robots and into the fourth simulation. And what did we face here? Something that I'd been wanting to smash to bits ever since it tried to kidnap Kluke.

"The big boy has come to play at last, has he?" Kesu said with a snigger as we were sent towards the numerous green robots as they formed into the giant War Mech once again.

"Huh?... Is it just me, or are they following the orders of one mech in particular?" Kluke asked in confusion when she saw something I didn't.

"You're correct in your assumption. Nene had it so the lone survivor of the War Mechs would be the leader of the group. If we can eliminate him, the whole thing will be demolished," Kesu said, Anya smiling at her.

"You really are on our side... okay, then, let's smack the leader out of him, then!" Anya smirked as she smacked the giant War Mech right in the face with a powerful Windus Sword. And once she did so, the head popped off completely and at least 8 different War Mecha Robos appeared from the inside of the machine.

"One of these has got to be the leader! Attack them all before they have a chance to reform!" I said as I attacked the front line with Mow Down and did big damage to the ones in the front.

"Now it's my turn!" Kluke smiled as she used Grounda to attack all of the robots at once, them countering by pelting her with numerous lasers, which Anya's Mystic Mermaid blocked all of them and barely looked hurt. In fact, the Mermaid seemed to look pleased.

"Now that you've softened them up, I'll take the fray with my spell," Anya smiled as she then did a spell that I gasped at. It was some strange ball of energy that she sent towards the War Mechs. "Hunker down," Anya commanded, all of us doing so as she then snapped her finger and we gasped as the hole suddenly sucked all of the Mecha Robos directly to it, our group needing to increase our weight with our magic to prevent being sucked in ourselves! And as for Kesu, Anya smiled when she was sent into the area with the black hole (I assumed that was what it was) before snapping her fingers once more, all of the robots exploding from the blast... except for Kesu!

"What the fuck was that?! You could've killed me!" Kesu exclaimed at Anya.

"Don't you remember that spell I cast on you in the 2nd Simulation? You've still got 40 seconds left of complete invulnerability. When I used that attack, you had 1 minute left," Anya smiled, Kesu looking at Anya with a frown before she then laughed herself.

"So that's how I was able to survive Master Nene's magic attack... what do you call that spell? It's surely one that he's never used before," Kesu smirked.

"I call it 'Indestructible'. Fitting name, no? And that move I just used? I call that one Black Hole Blast," Anya smirked happily as we then boarded the next warping station and went to the next area. And when we did, we had to plow through a few more robot troops before emerging in the final area, no simulations at all.

"Should be straightforward enough," Marumaro smiled as we moved forward a bit before a fleet of robots emerged that we all recognized.

"What the?! Yasato? What are you doing here?" Anya asked.

"I apologize, friend Anya... Master has ordered me to fight you... and has installed something on me so I cannot deny him... you must destroy me," Yasato said with sadness, our group gasping at that.

"No, we won't. We're going to save you!" Anya exclaimed.

"How? How can you save a robot if he's attacking you?" Zola asked.

"It's going to be quite simple. Just hold up," Anya smiled as she cast a spell and I gasped when I then saw something happen that was awesome. I saw some kind of apparition dash into all of the different servant robots summoned including Yasato, finding and removing something from their bodies in different areas faster than I could even blink! Once it finished with the final one, I gasped as I saw that all the robots looked confused at first before I saw something in Anya's hands. Numerous CPU chips, about 9 of them!

"Oh my god... did you just move faster than the speed of light?!" Kluke gasped.

"No, I stopped time for everyone but myself for 40 seconds. I call it Time Twister," Anya smirked, obviously boasting as Yasato looked at us with a smile.

"Friends... I thank you for saving me! You must go! I'll escape on my own," Yasato said, Anya looking at him with a frown.

"Naw, I'll have you all escape right now, and get us some experience to boot," Anya smirked as she focused her powers and we all gasped as the robots all warped away and, in their places, we saw an equal number of Kelolon as there were servant robots!

"Another unique power? Damn, Anya. You're good," Jiro smiled.

"I know I am. I call that saving grace my Warp Switch technique. Simply focus one someone and then focus on another creature or person to switch locations with. Now they'll be back home in Baroy Town," Anya smiled as we proceeded to the elevator and we were about a quarter of the way up before we saw someone else appear from below.

"WAIT!" exclaimed a very injured Szabo. "Szabo? No!" Anya exclaimed as he tried to aim his gun at us and Zola then did something different. She jumped from the elevator and started to charge Szabo.

"You guys go after Nene! I'll cover you from here!" Zola exclaimed.

"You got it, Lady Zola!" Marumaro exclaimed as we went up the elevator the rest of the way until we came across Nene, who was sitting on his gigantic throne with the most smug smile ever.

"Master Nene, it looks as though the tables have finally turned, hasn't it?" Anya smiled as our group walked forward towards Nene.

"Hmph. I should've known that I'd have more than one traitor, but you, Raging Kesu? You were one of my trusted Robot Generals!... No matter, a replica is not the same, but it will serve better than you," Nene smiled widely.

"I may be called Raging Kesu, your excellency, but I have a mind of my own, and I know that killing people for the sake of joy is not a good thing to do! I am ashamed to have even been the creation of a monster like you! You're smell worse than a Poo Snake, you are more vile than a Hydrattler, more sickening than a Snakeface, and more slippery than a Kelolon with a case of the runs! The day that has you dead is a day that everyone will rejoice!" Kesu exclaimed angrily, me looking at her in surprise at how she, one of Nene's top mercenaries, was telling him off.

"How pitiful..." Nene snickered as he then did something we all gasped at. He produced four more collars out of thin air and sent them at myself, Marumaro, Kluke, and Jiro! We all then gasped as they stuck to our necks and Anya gasped.

"NO!" she exclaimed. I then felt like my entire neck was on fire as I saw that everyone's collar and mine had turned red and we had been risen into the air! I tried my hardest to gasp for breath before I then yelled with my allies and I gasped out a final gasp... I thought that was the end of it... but when I felt power flow within me again, it was when I saw that Nene was swallowing the last of his Soul pieces.

"Shu, come on... we have to get out of here!" Anya said with concern.

"Not until I handle this bastard!" I exclaimed in anger.

"S-Shu..." I heard Kluke gasp as she got up next, then Jiro, and then Marumaro... me looking at Nene and gasping as he then underwent a transformation and we were stunned to see his old, decrepit body suddenly become much younger and for his shadow to turn into a giant purple chimera!

"Ah... finally! I have gained back my youth and my power in this time! Now I will begin a new era of magic and rule this world! All will bow before me!" Nene exclaimed angrily as Anya looked at him with a growl.

"Is that what you promised Himiko?" she growled, Nene stopping his laughter the moment he heard that name again.

"What?" Nene growled.

"What was the promise that you gave Himiko before you 'went to your frozen sleep?' Was it to rule the world?! Is that what you promised her?" Anya growled.

"Do not speak of my darling Himi-" Nene was about to say before Anya yelled something at him.

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO MY FUCKING WORDS?!" Anya yelled angrily as she let out her shadow in retaliation, Nene gasping and grinning at that.

"Fine. Speak your mind. Either way, you won't have long to live afterwards," Nene smiled.

"When I ask a question, you answer it truthfully. You are no longer ruled by your sickness, so now you can think like a sane man. So answer my goddamn questions for once. Just this one instance!" Anya growled.

"Fine," Nene frowned, me sensing that his power was still greater than ours, but against all of us, we'd pretty much be on even ground.

"First off, why do you think hurting those without magic is going to help you with your condition when you could be using that time to ask people for any kind of help?  
Question number two, why would you try and rule over those that have no magic when you were once a kind king who wanted everyone to have the ability to be accepted, no matter if they had magic or not?

And the final question, and you had better damn well answer it, what was the promise you made Himiko? Because if it was to rule the world, I don't think she would've been so in love with you to have made this necklace for you afterwards," Anya growled as she presented another necklace that I gasped at and so did Nene. It was a necklace that had darker colors of purple and black on it and it also had a picture frame in it. And when she opened it up, it was the same picture with different words inside of it.

"The first answer is that I hurt those without magic so that they can gain the willpower to be strong enough to nourish my soul when I find a potential suitor!  
The second answer is that all of the people I ruled were ANCIENTS! There were no such things as you stupid, idiotic humans in my timeline!" Nene growled.

"No such thing!" Deathroy exclaimed after.

"And for the final answer... my promise to Himiko wasn't that I would rule the world. At the time I said that, the world no longer existed, you bitch! I promised her that I would always love and cherish her, even if I have to never see her again!" Nene snarled, me gasping when he called Anya a bitch.

"Fine. You answered my questions, thank god, now we're going to retreat," Anya frowned, me about to retaliate before the scenery around me suddenly changed. And where did we appear at? A town that looked so full of death and lifeless trees that it looked like it was the worst place to live... yet there were villagers here.

"Why the hell didn't you let me finish him off?!" I growled at Anya.

"Shu, those collars are still on your necks. Your souls may be free from Nene's influence, but those collars will stay on your bodies for a full 24 more hours. All we can do for now is wait out that time in this vil... oh shit..." Anya gawked when she saw the surroundings. "We're... we're in..." she was about to say before I heard a voice from behind us.

"Devour Village..." said a girl's voice from behind us.

"It's nice to see you again... cousin Annie," the girl said with a very sad face on her.


	23. Ch22: Anya's Last Straw

**Anya POV:**

"Sahlia?... You do not look like you're doing well right now," I gawked when I saw my cousin standing before us, her looking to have been crying a lot with her eyes completely bloodshot, her hair all messy and dirty, and her face to have some stress on it with some bags under her 16 year old eyes.

"Annie... you shouldn't be here..." Sahlia said.

"Why? This was the only place that I could think of that was far away from that madman, yet closest to Noluta," I said to her.

"I mean that you need to leave... but you can't..." Sahlia said with tears welling up in her red eyes.

"What do you mean?..." Shu asked. Sahlia then pointed to the center of town and I gasped. She was pointing at a large tree that I could tell had magic inside of it.

"That tree... that fucking tree... every single year it wakes up and devours one of our citizens, whoever it chooses... last year it ate my father... this year, just 2 days ago... my mother..." Sahlia said before she cried again, me gasping and collapsing on my knees and hands.

"Auntie Sally... Uncle Boyle... both of them..." I sniffled before my will was back and I yelled loudly. "AAAAGH! NENE!" I yelled angrily as my Mystic Mermaid emerged from my shadow and Sahlia gasped when she saw it.

"A-Annie?... W-What's with your shadow?!" Sahlia gasped.

"Don't worry, cousin. I'm going to save this village and avenge my family once and for all! I'm going to rip that fucking tree to shreds, even if it takes all day to do it!" I exclaimed in fury as I then activated every single weapon that coated my body. "Lasers engage! Rocket launchers engage! Blade arms, fucking engage!" I exclaimed as all of my attachments came out and Anya looked extremely scared.

"Don't worry, cousin. These weapons are all going to be used on that tree. For auntie and uncle! For all of Devour Village... HHHYYAAAGH!" I yelled in extreme rage as I jetted at the tree and began my assault. When I made the first blow, the tree then revealed its true colors, its face emerging with horrific teeth and a very sinister face on it. I snarled as I hacked and slashed away at the tree's body with my blade arms, managing to slice apart two giant roots that it used for hands, making the tree shriek horribly. Once it did so, I fired rockets into its gaping mouth and then ignited the top of the tree with my lasers, which were where my... butt was. Yeah, I had lasers in my butt cheeks.

But it didn't matter to any of the citizens, because every single one of them started to cheer in unison. Why? Because the tree had been burnt to a crisp, exploded, and the fire it produced was perfect for a party to happen.

"Hah... hah... hoo..." I sighed and huffed as I let down all of my weapons and then laid down on the ground with a smile, Sahlia rushing up to me and not even caring about the fire nearby.

"Cousin... a-are you okay?..." Sahlia gasped at me.

"Rgh... I... I need a bed... and a bath..." I smiled at her, me hearing the power supply inside of me beeping for low power. "Activating... Sleep Mode... wake up... in 24 hours..." I smiled as I then let my eyes close and my entire body went into its sleeping state... the last thing I heard before falling asleep was my friends telling Sahlia to hurry up.

**Shu POV:**

Out of all the things that Nene had done to Anya, it was no surprise to anyone that this was the moment that finally made her lose her lid. After hearing that family members had died from a tree devouring them (which I guess is ironic, given the name of the village we were in was Devour Village), I probably would've gone into a flying fit of rage myself. Anya was carried by our group and Sahlia to a house that had a very cute interior with a stove and a kitchen that I could smell was making cookies.

"Okay, you lot. Tell me," Sahlia said after she had laid Sahlia down on her couch to rest.

"Tell you... what? Everything?" Kluke asked calmly.

"Anything you can that can explain to me what the fuck happened to my cousin. You guys have obviously been with her for awhile, so spill it," Sahlia said to us with a frown.

"W-Well... we honestly didn't meet Anya until a week ago. For 10 years she had been held captive on this jerk Nene's ship. He's the last remaining Ancient and his actions have been horrific not only to her, not only to us, but I suspect even your village with that man-eating tree," I said, Sahlia listening as she pulled up a chair and sat down in it.

"About 10 years ago, Anya was kidnapped by Nene when she was in Noluta Village. He then proceeded to try and turn her into an android, nearly her entire body being converted to become mechanized, the only places it not affecting being her brain, her bones, and her face. But try as Nene might, only two programming codes happened with her. She can never address Nene without calling him Master Nene and she is unable to say anything but the truth. She's unable to lie now, but other than that, she's still the same person you know and love," Jiro explained.

"All this time... I thought that Anya was still protecting Noluta..." Sahlia sighed.

"When we met her, she gave us some pieces of Nene's soul so that we could use magic just like she was able to do, even before she got abducted by Nene. She then told us that we had to reach a certain rank with our magic before we could be freed of Nene's influence in our bodies. That happened in an area called the Wire Highlands, when we were chasing down Nene," Kluke said.

"So... how did you manage to get here?" Sahlia asked.

"Well, we escaped Nene's ship and started out in the Lot Wilderness, pretty much the exact opposite in terms of where we are now on the map... see, this is where we had to start out, and this is where we are now," Jiro said as he showed Sahlia the map, her gawking at that.

"You must be awfully tired to have traveled so far. Would you like some cookies? I was making a fresh batch before I saw your group appear out of nowhere," Sahlia offered, her going to the oven and pulling out a tray full of them.

"Sure, we can eat them while we talk," I smiled as Marumaro was about to grab one, but yelled out in pain when he touched them.

"OW! Hot HOT HOT!" he yelled as he ran around the room.

"So... who's your yellow friend?" Sahlia smiled, trying to ignore Maro's outburst.

"He's Marumaro, a Devee. His village was poisoned with a flower that grows here, the Miasma Bloom," Kluke said, Sahlia furrowing her brow again.

"It's this Nene you mentioned, wasn't it?" she frowned.

"Yes. Marumaro also got a shadow from Nene and we had to go to the Forest of the Dead to find a Gabo plant to give the villagers of the Devee Tribe. And as for the other areas that Nene has hurt, he's killed 30 people in our home, Talta Village, with the Land Shark. He's flooded Castle Jibral once a year with magical tsunamis. He forced an entire city filled with servant robots to attack us against their will and kill some of them in the process. He froze all of Noluta's villagers in ice shortly after abducting Anya. And, the one that finally made Anya go nuts back there, he turned this tree into a man-eater and killed your parents, which I guess was her breaking point, as they were her family," I said.

"How horrible... she said that she needed to rest for 24 hours in sleep mode... she needs to recharge or something?" Sahlia asked.

"Yes, she can normally go 6 days without needing rest, but after that stunt, I guess her power reserves got quite low," I smiled.

"6 days... What about food? Does she need a drink when she gets up?" Sahlia asked.

"With her enhancements, she's now completely incapable of needing food or water or going to the bathroom. She's almost completely mechanical from the neck down," Jiro said as he kept watch over her body as she breathed in and out, a smile on her face as she slept.

"Yet she still remembers who I am... she hasn't forgotten me after I was born all that time ago... I knew it was her the moment I heard her voice... she hasn't changed at all since the last I saw her, over 12 years ago... I was just 6 years old at that time..." Sahlia smiled.

"So you're 18 now? That's a year above my age," I smiled. Sahlia smiled at me too, but I looked at Kluke with a smile and she simply held my hand.

"So what do we do now?" Sahlia asked when we started to eat our cookies, the tray being cool enough to eat them now. "Is it going to hurt Maro again?" our little 7 year old friend asked.

"It's cool enough now, it won't hurt you," Sahlia smiled, Maro taking the cookie and biting into it. Honestly, I really liked the cookies. They were incredibly sweet and had a very unique taste that I had to ask what was in them. "What's in these cookies that makes 'em so good?" I asked with my mouth full, Kluke pinching me for that.

That's a secret I will only share with Anya when she wakes up," Sahlia smiled.


	24. Ch23: Romantics in Devour Village

**Anya POV:**

When I woke up next, I saw that I was inside of a bathtub and that it was filled up with water and soap. And the one washing me? It made me very embarrassed and I blushed profusely when I saw that it was my love.

"J-Jiro!" I gasped as I covered myself in embarrassment, him looking at me with a smile.

"S-Sorry, but Sahlia said you needed a bath and everyone said I should do it," Jiro said with a bit of surprise in his voice as well, me noticing that my ring wasn't on my finger.

"Do you have my ring?" I asked him.

"Yes, it's in my pocket... now that you're up, do you think you can wash yourself?" Jiro asked, me looking at him with a smile as my face soothed from his warmth.

"You can continue to wash me, just don't stare at me," I smiled at him, Jiro then washing my backside as I simply stayed in the tub and let him finish. He had apparently already done my front side while I was asleep and he soon got done and I smiled at him. "Now you can leave. I need to rinse and dry myself off now," I smiled at him. He did so and I then proceeded to rinse off in the tub, let the water out, and I then dried off my body with a towel that was nearby. Once I did so, I saw that there were some clothes provided for me that I tried on. They looked to be brand new clothes, so I was happy to have them. They consisted of a blue shirt, a white bra, a frilly skirt that went down to my knees, leggings of black, and pink panties, which made me smile. Sahlia must've picked these clothes, since she knew that pink was my least favorite color, but I ignored that and put on the clothes before emerging from the bathroom with a smile. All of my allies were sitting in Sahlia's house with my cousin nearby, me noticing that all of their collars had broken off during my slumber.

"I guess the other reason you wanted to sleep for a whole 24 hours was because you wanted our collars to be off before we left?" Shu smiled at me.

"That's one reason, another reason is because my power was dangerously low and I needed a rest. And the main reason was so you could all get to know my cousin... speaking of which, Sahlia... sorry about scaring you like that yesterday... I kind of flew off the handle when I learned what happened to Auntie and uncle... I swear that the next time I see Nene, I'm going to rip into his body and demolish his insides while he's still alive. He deserves nothing but the worst for what he's done to all of us in this world... going from town to town and wreaking havoc wherever he goes and... wait a minute... has anyone seen Kesu anywhere?" I asked, finally noticing the complete lack of our female robot companion.

"You mean the robot that flies and has a pointy head? She's actually out by the cliff. She said she wanted to see her first sunrise," Sahlia smiled.

"Okay, when the sun rises, we're immediately heading out to the Devour Forest and we're going to go south to Noluta... it's high time that we paid a well-needed visit at Anya's home and save everyone that's been frozen there," Kluke said.

"Maro agrees! Nene needs to pay!" Marumaro said as I noticed that his hand looked like it had been hurt.

"What happened to your hand?" I asked him with a smile.

"He touched the cookie tray while it was still hot," Jiro smiled at me, which I chuckled at.

I then decided to go out to the cliff area and I saw Kesu hovering in place looking over the cliff as I saw a slight pink light start to emerge from the ocean. "I see you finally woke up, Anya," Kesu said when she heard my footsteps approach her, me standing next to her and me looking out to the sunrise as well.

"Yeah... what are you thinking about in that brain of yours?" I asked her.

"About what I found out from Master Nene's history... he did have love in his heart at one point, but this disease he has... it's causing him to do all of these things to the point that, even when he isn't diseased, he still has the mind of a madman. He's drunk with power and he won't stop until he destroys this world... and I have a feeling he's going to do something drastic soon, but what it could be, I cannot even fathom," Kesu said, her turning to me when she talked.

"My guess, Kesu... he's going to try something to turn the world into what I saw in one of the history books... the world of the Ancients isn't the earth we stand on right now. It's actually inside of our world. In order for Nene to rule this world, my guess is that he's going to bring back the world of the Ancients lying right under our feet in various cube-shaped mini-planets hidden deep inside of the planet's core... I have no idea how he's going to do it, but I fear that's what he will resort to," I said with a frown.

"It may just be that... or maybe he'll try to find the Biogenetic weapon that has been sealed for thousands of years. But whatever the case, we need to be careful in how we proceed. Once we free Noluta from its plight, we need to find Zola. We need her expertise in combat to take the fight to Nene," Kesu said.

"How would you know she was an expert combatant?" I asked Kesu, confused how she would know that fact about someone she never talked to before.

"It's because of something that we're going to explain to you on our way through Devour Forest," Shu said from behind me, him looking at me with a smile as I saw the others join us and Sahlia as well... though Sahlia looked at me with a small smile.

"Annie?" she asked me with a smile.

"Yes, cousin Sahlia?" I smiled at her.

"Your friends say that you're able to call the magic out of people that lies in their hearts... I wanted to know if you could give that to me as well. I heard you gave it to King Jibral... I want to be able to protect the village if anything might attack it again. We don't need another tree around here to eat people," Sahlia said with seriousness. I couldn't help but smile at her as I then approached her with a smile.

"Of course I'll help you out, Sahlia. After all, we're family," I smiled at her as I then placed my hands on her temples and she looked confused. "You will feel a bit of pain, just yell out when I'm doing this and your shadow will come out," I said to her. She nodded and I focused my powers, Sahlia immediately wincing and yelling from the pain of me trying to call out her shadow, Sahlia shouting extremely loud at the peak of pain as her shadow emerged, me smiling at what it was.

"Oh my god... I feel powerful! I feel like I could punch through a brick wall!" Sahlia exclaimed after her shadow came out and we all laughed when it simply meowed. "That doesn't sound like a sound of a powerful shadow... dammit, I look stupid, don't I?" Sahlia frowned with a blush when she saw her shadow was a large and fat cat with a wand in its hand and wearing an open vest on it.

"Well, you may not be able to punch through walls, but the Cat Genie specializes in weakening magics and 1 hit kill attacks with enough training. You can weaken an opponent's attack power, defense, speed, the works, no matter if they have a defense against it or not. And when you get more experience with it, you'll be able to kill enemies of a certain type of category, such as beasts, poo monsters, robots, and undead," I smiled at her.

"Well, that sounds better! So I can basically weaken an enemy until they can be squishy enough to defeat, right?" Sahlia smiled.

"That's the idea. I suggest you start training your shadow immediately. It looks to be quite strong already, powerful enough to defeat some of the monsters in Devour Forest for sure," I smiled at her.

"I haven't been to that forest in so long... that tree prevented us from leaving this town for so long," Sahlia said with a sigh before smiling at Shu.

"Do you like Shu?" Marumaro asked her, Shu slapping him on the head for that, making me smirk.

"I would say... I am quite interested in him," Sahlia smiled, but I could sense it inside of her. She had a crush on Shu.

"What's her true feelings, Anya?" Kluke smiled at me. I just had to say it... damn truth genes.

"She has a crush on Shu... dammit..." I groaned, Sahlia slapping me for that, which I expected. "Sorry, I can't tell lies... I couldn't save you this time, cousin," I sighed at her as I rubbed my cheek. She wasn't using her shadow, but it was obvious she got a boost in physical strength from the shadow emerging.

"I will admit, that is one thing that is probably the hardest code to overcome," Kesu said.

"So... you have a crush on me?" Shu asked Sahlia, her simply blushing at that.

"Well... um... Kluke? Could you help me out here?" Shu asked Kluke.

"Well... uh... Anya? Any idea what I can say?" Kluke asked. I simply smiled as I thought of one way everyone can be happy.

"Shu can have a girlfriend in both you and Sahlia, right?" I smiled, Sahlia blushing at that, as did Shu while Kluke gasped.

"That's the solution?" she frowned.

"Well, can't you share him? I know I used to have more than one boyfriend during my teenage years. And they were perfectly fine with sharing me," I smiled.

"Really? I never knew that," Jiro said.

"Well... should we take a vote?" Shu asked.

"Fine. All for having Shu share both of us, raise their hands," Kluke said. Shu, myself, Sahlia, and Marumaro all raised our hands. "Well... majority rules, I guess. Okay, we'll share Shu. But we'll need to wait for anything until after we've finally defeated Nene. None of us are safe so long as he's still out there causing havoc," Kluke said.

"Agreed," I smiled at that.


	25. Ch24: Frozen City and Kluke's Last Straw

**Shu POV:**

Our group made it through Devour Forest quite easily, as, though the enemies were all undead monsters, they were no match for our skills as almost all of them attacked alone. Anya then led us all down a very long path through the snowfields to Noluta Village, not even taking the time to attack the different monsters, which none of us could blame her for. We then finally reached Noluta Village and we gasped as we entered the gates and immediately got a chill from the coldness of the village.

"W-What is this?!" Anya gasped as she saw that, indeed, there was ice all over the place. And there was one resident that was frozen in front of us that made me sick. It was a little kid, no older than 10! And then something shocking happened. When he saw us, despite being frozen in ice, he actually spoke to us!

"A-Anya?... You've finally come back!" the kid said with a smile, his mouth being the only thing that could move.

"Frado!" Anya gasped as she rushed to him and looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I've been so worried... where were you all this time?" Frado asked.

"I was kidnapped by the very same man that did this to all of you. Tell me, what did that monster do that caused all of this to happen?" Anya asked him with worry on her face.

"He used the device in the town center... he said a strange password, the words he said I have never forgotten... I mean, how can you forget the words that froze everyone in place in freezing cold ice?" Frado asked with a frown.

"What's the password? And where is mommy?" Anya asked him. Frado then said the password and we were all surprised at how it was in some kind of talk that we hadn't heard before.

"That's the dialect of the Ancients... I've studied it a bit in the past... I think I can say that password and save all of you! Where's momma?" Anya asked him.

"Your mom... she's trapped in the river... she was taking a dip when that monster appeared and recited those words, freezing her inside of the river," the frozen kid said, Anya immediately rushing to that location while we followed after her. She was quite fast at running when she wanted to be and when we found her mom, we were shocked to see that she looked quite young despite having a 24 year old daughter before she'd been frozen in ice.

"Mommy! Are you okay?" Anya asked when she looked her mother in the eyes, the woman frozen in the river blinking a few times before speaking, her entire body unable to move at all.

"Is that... you? My darling Annie? Where have you been?... I thought you were gone for good..." Anya's mother said with a kind smile, though she was obviously a bit stunned speechless, from what I could guess.

"I was kidnapped, mom... I've been gone for so long because the man that did this to our home kidnapped me before doing this horrendous crime!" Anya said to her mom with tears in her eyes.

"I knew that you wouldn't have left us to perish willingly... this river... my entire body is frozen... but my lower half... I don't think I'll be able to walk again, even after I get thawed out..." Anya's mom said, Kluke gasping before getting incredibly angry.

"NEEENNNEEE! ! !" Kluke exclaimed in absolute fury as her shadow erupted into a fiery red to show how furious she was! And honestly, it looked quite intimidating. "That monster is not going to live by the time this is all over! After we save your village, we're going to find that monster and kill him before he hurts anymore innocent people! Let me at that control panel!" Kluke growled as she grabbed all of us with her shadow and pushed us to the panel, Anya simply rushing over to join us. Kluke was the one to then chant the words that Frado mentioned and, when she did, the device turned on and a small quaking of the ground occurred. "Time to battle!" Kluke yelled in anger as the guardian of this console soon appeared. A gigantic golem made out of iron with four arms.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

Out of all of my allies to blow their top after me, Kluke was the last person I would've guessed to be the one to do so. She was so calm most of the time, but now she showed her rage incarnate with her Phoenix taking on the form of its red shadow form, which only happened in the most angered states of mind. Kluke wasted no time in showing the true power of an angry magic user, completely melting the giant golem in just one swoop with a giant flume of ultra-intense lava that stuck to the golem and melted it from the outside inwards until only the barrier device remained!

"Ho... ly... shit..." Shu gawked as Marumaro just looked on in fright and I looked at Kluke with a frown, seeing she was still furious.

"Kluke... calm down... take a deep breath," I tried to say to her, Kluke still seething even after she did deep breathing.

"This is not normal Kluke behavior... what's gotten into her?" Jiro asked in shock. Then Kluke growled and snapped back a comment at Jiro.

"NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!" Kluke snarled angrily, me simply slapping her across the face with a powerful hand, Kluke then gasping as she let her shadow down and she collapsed on the ground from fatigue.

"Kluke!" Shu exclaimed as he rushed beside her. Kluke was still awake, but she was completely exhausted.

"I... I don't know what... what came over me... what just happened... to me... Anya?" Kluke asked me with long pauses for breath in-between.

"That, my dear Kluke, is a form of magic that only those filled with a hidden rage side have inside of them. The Red Shadow Power," I said to her as I picked her up while Jiro took the device off the ground and pushed the button, me smiling as all of the ice melted around us and I immediately rushed to the river and grabbed my mother out of it before she could float downstream, me having to drag her across the ground because, from what I saw, her feet and legs were almost completely hypo-thermic. She couldn't use them ever again... but she still kept her smile on her as she hugged me for the first time in a decade.

"What's Red Shadow Power?" Jiro asked.

"Do you recall what Nene's shadow looked like when it was fully completed?" I asked the group.

"Yeah, it was a giant chimera! And it was almost red, but almost purple as well," Maro said.

"Exactly. Nene has so much latent magic, he is able to tap into Red Shadow Power once he's fully charged with energy and he has regained his power. That's why his Chimera was purple-red. Kluke, on the other hand, has just had her first exposure to the sheer destructive nature of Red Shadow Power. If a person gets way too angry, their soul reacts to it and makes their shadows more power at the cost of almost all control of your emotions except for anger. She needs to have that power contained within her. Now that she's used Red Shadow Power once, there is a good chance it'll happen again if she gets mad at pretty much anything. Too much usage will do the same thing to you that it did to Nene. Give you a disease that is caused by your overexertion of magic," I said to her.

"That... that's insane... to think that a human could have as much destructive power as Nene," Kesu gawked.

"Who's your floaty friend with the pointy head?" mom asked with a smile, me smiling at how she was still okay.

"That's one of my fellow robot friends... her original name was Raging Kesu... but I think I should just call her Kesu from now on," I smiled at her.

"Heh. It's more like Kluke and Anya are the real ragers. I didn't know that you could get that strong, Kluke... but if what Anya says is right, then you're going to need to keep a cool head," Shu said to his girlfriend.

"Yeah... I'll try to stay calm... now we need to find Nene... but where could we go to do that?" Kluke asked as she was regaining her strength back bit by bit.

"The Glass Spires," said a voice from behind me, which I saw belonged to the other person I cared for unlike any other.

"PAPA!" I exclaimed as I ran over to him and mom smiled as she sat on the ground and I rushed over to hug my dad.

"My dear Annie..." my dad smiled as we hugged each other for a good long while until Marumaro brought the question up.

"What are the Glass Spires?" Maro asked.

"I've seen some movement with the Glass Spires to the south in the Great Desert. I had to hitch a ride to get here from one of your friends. She told me to tell you that she has a mode of transport to go after Nene effective immediately," my dad said.

"Zola. I knew she wasn't out of the good fight yet! She must have gotten the scientists to fix up that Mechat finally! Let's go find her!" I smiled, looking back at my mom again and seeing that Kesu looked to be near her with a smile. "You coming with, Kesu?" I asked her.

"Negative... I think I'd rather stay here and help your mother with medical attention. She needs some kind of support for her body," Kesu said.

"Don't worry about me, Annie. Just go and kick that purple douche bag's but for me!" mom smirked at me.

"I'll do that and soooo much more, mommy," I smiled at her as I got the others to follow me to the gate that left town, but not before I activated a warp station with one of the keys I had on hand. "Time to see how Zola is faring," I smirked.


	26. Ch25: Fighting Against Nene's Darkness

**Anya POV:**

Our group made it through the next few areas with ease, even when facing off against a giant Rockwind Wolf Ghost, we were way above all of their leagues. It was then that we emerged in the Great Desert and we gawked at the giant spires of glass... I knew what they were the moment I saw them, however. "These things... this is how Nene's going to rule the world," I gawked when I saw them.

"How?" Shu asked.

"These giant pillars are not glass, nor have they ever been glass spires. They are the fins of gigantic Crystalline Land Sharks. Once Nene decides it's time for them to wake up, he's going to turn them on and carve the planet in two, not caring about who would die in the process... the big problem is that, even with our shadows, Nene claims that nothing can destroy these things. Not even a powerful laser is enough to make a dent... he really can rule the world if he chooses," I frowned as I punched a hole in the sand and growled lowly. But then we heard something from nearby.

"So, you finally showed up?" asked the voice of our favorite mercenary friend.

"LADY ZOLA!" Marumaro exclaimed as he rushed over and hugged Zola's leg when he saw her.

"What happened to you after you left us to face off with Szabo?" Jiro asked her.

"Szabo wasn't as easy to take out as I thought... but I found this Mechat in a hangar nearby when I had escaped the Fortress and decided to borrow it. I grabbed a hitchhiker around the western continent that wanted to go to Noluta, and I'm sure you know who I'm referring to," Zola smiled.

"My daddy," I smiled.

"Yes. He told me I'd probably find you in the Eastern Continent, as he said that you were probably going to save Noluta next. Turns out he was right. But we should get going," Zola said.

"Agreed on that much. We have to go after Nene now!" Shu said as we all boarded the Mechat and we proceeded to fly to the east. And when we did so, I gasped when I happened to see the spires start to move.

"Oh no... not now..." I gulped when they then started to move some more and more! "No! Nene's woken up the giant Land Sharks! Zola, take us higher!" I exclaimed, Zola doing just that as we then climbed through the atmosphere and I gasped as I saw the world start to be cracked in half, seeing that the impact had left Castle Jibral in complete ruin! "KING JIBRAL!" I exclaimed in anger as the planet then split into two parts. And when it did so, the inside of the planet gained numerous cubes that flew out of the inside of the planet.

"Take us back, we need to find a way into that center area!" Jiro said. And when Zola did so, we gasped as we entered a giant flume of Nene's signature mode of tyranny. "The violet clouds..." Kluke gasped as she held her heart and we saw something emerge from all of the clouds. It was a giant visage of Nene that he had projected into the clouds for the whole world to see!

"AHAHAHA! Greetings to all of you pitiful humans! I am your new lord and ruler, Nene!" he exclaimed with laughter as I snarled at what he was doing. "You humans who have forgotten magic will pay the ultimate price. For those who are unwilling to accept my new rule, your world shall be wracked with numerous natural disasters! But if you wish to serve as my slaves, you will all be spared. SO! Do you want to oppose someone who was able to return the world to the state it was originally intended to do?!" Nene exclaimed with a loud cackle before the clouds then started to show some more apparitions. It was all the villages, towns, and cities we'd been to. All of them having the same exact plague happen to them as before! A giant man-eating tree was in Devour Village and grabbed some people trying to run from it! But I smiled at how the visage then showed that the tree had been sliced in half by something.

"WHAT?!" Nene exclaimed when he saw the one who attacked the tree. It was Sahlia, who had already gained control of her Cat Genie and had instantly felled the undead tree with Ghost Killer!

"Is that all you got, you purple skinned bastard?! Keep sending in more trees! I'll slay through all of them just like you did to my parents!" Sahlia exclaimed as another visage I saw made me smile some more. Castle Jibral was being bombarded by Tidal Waves, but all of the citizens were safe with Jibral protecting them with his Qilin shadow's Guardian status!

"For all the lives that you have killed in your mad lust for power, we will not allow you to rule this world! Even if all of us die, we will never bow down to you, even if you are the last person on Earth, you will never take our FREEDOM!" King Jibral exclaimed as he then used a technique that I smiled at. He used immense magic to warp himself and all of Castle Jibral's citizens to a safer area, which I could see was Noluta. The village hadn't frozen because Raging Kesu had demolished the device that controlled the frozen city.

"If you can hear me, Nene, you are no longer my master! For the murders of thousands of people, for harming my best friend's family, I hope you rot in hell for all eternity!" Kesu exclaimed angrily as my dad then did something I never expected. He let out his shadow and I saw it was a centaur with a large flail on it!

"You will pay for turning my little Annie into a robot! YOU WILL!" he exclaimed loudly as he then busted a giant sheet of crystal with just one swing of the shadow's flail. I then saw Talta Village was being bombarded by Land Sharks and the one to be taking them all out single-handedly was none other than Shu's grandpa Fushira! And his shadow? It was a flower ghost of sorts that I smiled at.

"The Noxious Rafflesia! Your grandad has magic too!" I smiled as I shook Shu a bit in excitement as Fushira used the power of it to buff all of the different villagers insanely to the point that all of them were able to completely manhandle the Land Sharks that were attacking the village. Even Jiro's parents were destroying them with bare fists!

"Keep up the supply of Land Sharks, Nene! You took my daughter away from me, and you took little Kluke's parents, but this old man still has a lot to live for! Talta Villagers, let's show this creep why no one messes with a Talta resident! GO GET 'EM, SHU!" Fushira exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

Then it switched to Devee Village, the place looking to be experiencing an Earthquake, but a duo of Devee children had their own shadows and were using them to get all of the Devee people into the giant Drill machine for safety! And who were the kids in question? "Ah! Marumira and Marutora! They have magic too!" Marumaro exclaimed in joy. Marumira had a Tri Cerberus for her shadow while Marutora had an Imposing Kraken!

"Thanks for the tacky drill, you purple devil! We're just going to hide out in that little underground hospital that contained that stupid medicine you cared so much about! And when we find it, we're going to demolish every last bit!" Marumira exclaimed with a giggle as she hit the button on the Drill Machine and it started to drill underground once more!

"Looks like Nene's plan is backfiring, isn't it?" Kluke smiled.

"Not at all. Keep in mind, as far as we know, all of these guys have just recently discovered their shadows. They're not going to last long with their low magic supply! We need to find Nene's base of operations and take him out once and for all!" I exclaimed as Zola finally managed to get us into the core area of the planet's interior, her face of determination and grit unlike any I'd seen before on her.

"I'm picking up massive energy readings on sonar coming from that natural cube area. No doubt that's where Nene is hiding with numerous robots and monsters guarding him," Zola said.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go save the world from this beast! Charge! Da da-da-da DUN DUN!" I exclaimed, doing a charge medley as Zola raced in the Mechat for the giant cube. "Hang on, everyone. We'll be home for cake soon," I smiled.


	27. Ch26: Primitive, Both Cube and King

**Shu POV:**

Once our group arrived on the giant cube, we were surprised at how the area we were at was filled with greenery all over. "Could Nene really be here?" I asked when we proceeded forward near a large building area with a berry bush nearby.

"No doubt about it, Shu. I can sense his magic somewhere in the core of this cube-shaped mini-planet. We're going to need to get inside that structure to pursue him," Anya said as we proceeded forward and Anya had to grab Marumaro before he went over to eat one of the berries.

"Aw, come on! Maro hungry!" he groaned.

"Nene is on this cube, Marumaro. There is a high chance he poisoned that fruit. For now, just stick to eating some of the snacks we have. How about chocolate instead?" Anya asked as she pulled out a Zephyr chocolate, Marumaro smiling and eating it... but the smell of it made something emerge from nearby... something very large. And when it locked eyes with us, Anya smiled widely.

"Give me a break, this thing is supposed to be our first hurdle? I've taken out bigger lizards than this. Let's do this," Anya smiled as the giant dinosaur roared loudly and tried to attack Anya with its mouth, Anya stopping it in place and actually overpowering it with her superhuman strength! She then smirked as the giant dino tried to fight back and she had her Shadow emerge to smash its fists into the beast's head so hard and with such power, the giant dinosaur flew from the ground and smacked right into the giant door of the structure, making it crumble up for us to get in with ease.

"Point Anya," Jiro smiled.

"Giant robot dinosaur, zilch," Kluke smiled, us noticing that Nene hadn't caught onto the fact that we were now able to go after him. "Strange... you'd think that Nene would be tormenting us now with mind games," Kluke frowned.

"Most likely he's trying to keep up the pace with the natural disasters and trying to find a way to overpower the different cities' populace. He probably doesn't even know we're here. We can get a surprise jump on him," Zola smiled.

"Let's do it," Marumaro smirked as we rushed into the giant structure and proceeded deeper into the cube through an elevator. And when we finished our descent, we saw what the inside of the cube really was. Filled with lava and some strong-looking monsters. "Let's go through this place quickly while Nene's distracted," Anya smiled as we then started to rush our way through the cube and closer to the madman himself.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

I was legitimately surprised at how Nene hadn't noticed we had been drawing ever closer to him the further we went down, our group encountering one giant enemy after another until we finally got to the final floor. And when we saw a giant arena in front of us, I gasped as we saw what we were going to face as our final hurdle to Nene. It was Szabo, but his body was standing atop an amalgamation of all four of the other Robot Generals, Raging Kesu's replacement being on it as well.

"What's he done to Szabo?" I gawked at the monster Nene had turned him into.

"I don't know... let's strike now, but leave Szabo alive. He'll take us to Nene," Zola said.

"Understood," I smiled as I then proceeded to attack the giant robot menace with a giant spike of Groundus that skewered the central two robots supporting Szabo in one go, which actually made Szabo fall off badly damaged, but still alive. And as for the other two robots that were on him, they had detached as well and obviously didn't have programming inside of them. How did I know? Because they fell into the lava and burned to a crisp! Szabo then tried to get up before Zola held a blade in front of his face.

"Now you will take us to your Master Nene. Do so, and we will spare you," Zola frowned at him.

"Y-Yes... I shall..." Szabo said with a groan as he then started to float his way towards an open door and we followed him through it. And on the other side would be Nene. I could sense his essence at the very back of the room as well as a tremendous power source. Whatever he was planning, he didn't look like he was aware of our group entering the room.

"GRRGH! How many more of these human peons are going to be able to thwart my plans with magic?! They have forgotten about magic, so how can they use it now of all times?!" Nene snarled angrily as I simply fired a warning shot directly at his feet, Nene gasping as he literally jumped at that. "WHAT?!" he exclaimed when he saw all of us.

"You know, Master Nene... you sure do talk big, but your actions could use a bit more work after all the dirty things we've seen you do," I smiled at him widely.

"Peh, I must have gotten careless to have allowed you lot down here so easily... very well, then. You wish to fight me? To put an end to your master?" Nene smiled as he had something behind him that I gawked at. A giant Eternal Engine machine.

"You are never going to be my master ever again when I'm through with you, you bastard!" I exclaimed, glaring him down as I then started to speak my mind. "You've killed my aunt and uncle, you've crippled my mother for life, you've kidnapped me and turned me into a robot, and you made my cousin terrified when she saw what you turned me into! Out of all of the humans on this planet, of all of the lives you've demolished, why have you affected me, ME the worst of all of them?! Your misdeeds to all of humankind are not what a king is supposed to do! You once ruled with a kind but firm hand and helped those with little magic! Now it seems that you've turned into the polar opposite of the man you once were! You are not a king. You are a devil in the flesh! And last I checked, hell is still waiting for you to come home!" I exclaimed at him in anger, my group looking at me with a smile.

"Yeah, you tell that bastard off!" Shu smiled at me, cheering me on.

Nene growled at my actions and pressed a button on his new throne, me smiling as he then had the Eternal Engine behind him attach different support cords to his body to buff him up with even more strength than before. "So, you finally realize that this is the end, do you? Very well then, devil. For the entire fate of our planet, for the thousands of lives you have ended in your madness, I'll give you a one-way trip to the grave!" I exclaimed as me and all of my allies let out our shadows, Nene smirking and putting a light collar on almost all of my allies minus Zola, them simply smirking as the collars tried to take their power, but Nene gasped when he saw who they really belonged to.

"Impossible! Why have you shadows? This isn't my power!" Nene growled lowly.

"Nope. They have all become one with their inner self. And now you shall feel the power of 6 very angry and very powerful kids kicking your ass," I smiled as I then proceeded to attack first by having Mystic Mermaid attack the Eternal Engine supports with a blast of Flarus, annihilating the cords on the left side of Nene and making him hiss angrily at that.

"You think you can defeat me?! Think again!" Nene snarled as he then let out his Chimera shadow and he tried to attack me with it, but I smiled at how all of my allies assisted and had a pushing war between their shadows and Nene's shadow. In the end, I was the one to push Nene's shadow back and directly into him, Mystic Mermaid doing me a bonus by slapping Nene's left arm so hard that I heard the bones snap, Nene gasping as he started to quiver a bit.

"Three... two... one... and cue the scream," I smiled. And just like that, Nene's scream could be heard halfway around the entire world, me seeing that he had accidentally given a visage to the whole world that had him get hurt by us and his pain. I then heard a distant cheering and smiled. The entire planet was cheering for us to win. For us to defeat this madman!

"Do you hear those cheers, Master Nene? They aren't for you being their king. They're for us breaking your arm. And now, natural progression," I smiled as Kluke then answered by making a Flarus attack completely annihilate the support tentacles on the right side, Nene gasping as he fell to the ground, yet still retained a buffed state.

"Zola..." Nene said, me looking at Zola with a smile.

"Yes, what is it?" Zola asked, me looking at her with a smirk. On the way here through the cube, we'd already went through the plan.

"Give to me that which belongs to me, and stand by my side," Nene smiled, our group faking looking tricked as Zola did so and Marumaro did the best acting of all.

"No! Maro can't hurt Lady Zola!" Marumaro exclaimed, his acting being quite good for a little kid. Nene then took a collar and placed it around Zola's neck, her standing there and taking it with a cold frown, Nene's gasp obvious when she had her spirit within her be completely hers.

"What?!" Nene gawked.

"I've cast your spirit away, all the way back in Pachess Town. It's now at the deepest recesses of the ocean. And this spirit is all me. Szabo! The collar of Light!" Zola exclaimed, this one being new to me. Szabo and Zola were actually partners! Szabo immediately appeared and threw a collar at Nene, him gasping as he felt his power start to leave him.

"You... you planned this... all along... didn't you?" Nene snarled.

"Hah, yeah, we did. By the way, top notch acting, Marumaro. You actually had me believing it for a change," I smiled at my friends as Nene gasped as the light collar around him then turned red and his spirit left his body, Nene's state regressing to that of an old man, him barely able to move now.

"This is for Auntie Sally," I frowned as I shot Nene through the stomach, him gasping in an audible breath. "And this is for Uncle Boyle," I snarled as I shot him in the arms, both of them, me noticing that his little toad Deathroy escaped when I did so. But I knew Deathroy was a weak underling. "And this is for everyone else that you killed. And when you get to hell, tell Hineto to fuck himself," I snarled as I shot him directly through the skull, Nene's spirit falling down into Zola's hands.

"And now to dispose of this... HYAH!" Zola exclaimed as she hurled it far and long, the soul actually disappearing to the outer darkness of the cube we resided in.

"Did you see the look on his face when he saw we were faking that whole 'oh no! Zola betrayed us' bit thing? That was the best part of that! Sweet vengeance!" I smiled widely.

"My mom and dad can finally rest in peace... same with yours, Shu," Kluke smiled at her boyfriend.

"And don't forget Sahlia's. A lot of people are now able to rest in peace, knowing that this evil bastard is dead forever," Shu smiled... but then something happened that none of us, not even myself were expecting.

"AHAHAHA! Pathetic Pathetic!" exclaimed a voice of Deathroy coming from the direction of the broken Szabo.

"What's going on with Szabo?" Jiro asked. But then Deathroy slapped off Szabo's head and did something that made my heart sink. He started to laugh loudly as his body slowly started to melt and absorb Szabo, most of the throne, and all of the giant eternal engine all up as his voice changed from high pitched to extremely loud, booming, and deep. And his body? Once it had absorbed all of it, all of us gawked at the sheer size Deathroy now possessed...

"I AM THE END OF YOU ALL! I AM DESTROY, THE ULTIMATE BIOGENETIC WARRIOR!" the giant monster now said, my mouth gasping as I remembered the story.

"Oh shit... it's just like the murals! YOU WERE THE KILLER OF THE ANCIENTS ALL THOSE THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO!" I exclaimed at him as I saw that he looked strikingly similar to the monster in the mural town's story. And the size of this gigantic abomination? He made all of our sizes pale in comparison! "Get ready, guys! IT'S THE BIG ONE! All of our training was for this moment! THIS IS OUR FINAL FIGHT TO SAVE EVERYONE! If we fail this, the world will end!" I exclaimed with seriousness to all of my friends.

"Got it!" they all exclaimed as we let our our shadows to attack the giant beast.

"Bring it on, maggots," Destroy smiled at us as the entirety of the area around our circular arena became drenched in blazing hot lava and Destroy stood in it like it was nothing! The fight then started. The fight to determine the fate of our entire planet.


	28. Ch27: Saving the World from Destruction

**Shu POV:**

Deathroy being the killer of all the ancients? Even Anya didn't expect that little frog to become this giant warrior that stood at least 90 feet tall! We were tick sized compared to him! "Let's get this guy!" I exclaimed, not wanting to give up when we were so close. We may have been tiny compared to this monster, but our magic was more powerful for sure, they just had to be!

"So, you wish to fight me?! I'll entertain that," Destroy smiled as he then tried to smack Anya flat, but she smiled as her shadow emerged and held the hand in place above her, Destroy gasping as his hand looked to be straining from trying to crush her.

"Hah! Looks like that size is just for show, huh Deathroy? You're not able to kill me with a giant hand and both of my hands are behind my back!" Anya smiled, her power unlike all of ours as Destroy looked to get angry as he then tried to slam his giant hand smack down on Anya, but the shadow answered back by connecting a punch to Destroy's hand, the monster snarling as I heard something break in it. She had just broken one of Destroy's fingers, despite being the size of a bug compared to him!

"AGGH! I WILL DESTROY ALL OF LIFE!" the monster exclaimed as he then tried to crush me next, but my Blue Dragon connected a Flarus Sword directly into the fist, it actually burning the area to a crisp! "ARGH! I WILL DESTROY ALL OF DEATH!" Destroy shouted as he tried to slam his elbow into Kluke, but she blew the arm directly into his face with a powerful and electrical Windus! "I'LL DESTROY ALL THE LOVE IN THIS PATHETIC WORLD!" he exclaimed as Marumaro then attacked Deathroy's stomach with a super-charged punch, the shockwave actually making us hear numerous bones snap inside of the giant beast, making him lean on the platform dangerously close to our bodies.

"AND I WILL DESTROY ALL OF YOU!" Destroy exclaimed as he tried one more attack, trying to breathe a flume of fire at us, but Jiro had us covered by casting Shellus on all of us, our group barely getting phased as Zola then finished it off with a swift double strike with her Killer Bat, directly in Destroy's eyeballs! "AGGGHHH! ! ! THIS CANNOT BE! I AM THE PERFECT WARRIOR!" Destroy exclaimed as he fell backwards and tried to pick himself up out of the lava, but Anya had already gotten Mystic Mermaid out of her shadow for a Corporeal attack.

"GET DOWN AND STAY DOWN! TIDAL WAVE SLAM!" Mystic Mermaid exclaimed as she punched Destroy so hard that his entire body exploded, all of the remains of it disappearing and melting into the lava below.

"WE DID IT! I AM ANYA SINDA! DESTROYER OF EVIL! ! !" Anya exclaimed extremely loudly and with her arms way up in the air.

"Easy, hon. By the way, that was worth a million badass points. For both you and Mystic Mermaid," Jiro smirked at her.

"Thanks..." Anya smiled... but then we noticed that the arena we were in had a large warp pad inside of it.

"Do we dare?" Zola asked.

"Let's go!" Marumaro exclaimed as he was the first to rush into it, our group following shortly after. And when we appeared on the other side, we saw it was a circular white room with a large control panel in the center. And this control panel? It was the source of all the different disasters that Nene was producing across the world.

"There's a simple off button. Hopefully it's that easy," I smiled as I pushed it and we all smiled as the Man-Eating tree in Devour Village (Nene made more I guess), completely froze up and returned to normal, Jibral Castle's ocean stopped producing tsunamis, Lago Village, though badly hurt, stopped having quakes, and all of the Land Sharks in Talta Village froze to a standstill and we saw all of our fellow friends and family back home were still going strong.

"HOHO! They did it! Everyone, Shu and the gang did it!" Fushira exclaimed, me smiling at how he was thanking us and how I could hear the people cheering us again.

"Can you hear that?" I smiled at everyone.

"What?" Kluke asked.

"I can hear the whole world cheering for us. North, south, east, west, everywhere. The entire planet is cheering wildly at the stop of the natural disasters and the defeat of Nene! Some are chanting our names, some are chanting victory, and some are laughing and having parties already... let's go back up to the surface, grab that Mechat, and go back home," I smiled.

"Yeah... but what home could we go to? Jibral castle was almost completely destroyed and Marumaro's village suffered heavy damage as well," Zola said.

"Hmm..." I frowned as I looked at the different cubes and smiled at one in particular. "Well... there's a castle built on this cube here, and there happens to be a canyon-shaped cube right here. Jibral and his citizens can go to this Neo Cube while Marumaro and his village can move to the Cliff Cube," I smiled widely.

"And what about us? Or the Gorgo Giants?" Kluke smiled.

"How about this? If I see a village or a town that looks like a good residency, for every single person on the injured outer planet, we're going to keep finding Mechats and inactive Land Sharks to give all of them a home in the inner areas, but only if they want to move," I smiled.

"Ingenious. There's sure to be more Mechats available on this cube for sure," Jiro smiled as he showed off a cube that looked to be filled to the brim with hangars filled with flying machines.

"Then it's set! Let's go!" I smirked.


	29. Ch28: Aftermath of the Split World

**Anya POV:**

Once the world finished their cheering, I then did something similar to what Nene did and placed my visage on the planet with the screen in front of us. "Greetings everyone... my name is Anya Sinda. Myself, Marumaro the Devee, Zola the mercenary of Jibral, and the Talta Village teens of Shu, Kluke, and Jiro have just slain the monster Nene, the one responsible for all of the unexplainable misfortunes that happened to your world," I said, the people having faces of confusion in some of the villages.

"I mean no one any harm, I just wish to know, from all of the citizens of Earth, what is the condition of the cities and towns you reside in? Talk all at once if you wish, I can pick up even the smallest of sounds," I said, me hearing tons of voices all at once on the planet. Most of the cities and towns in the center of the world were the ones that had the most grievances, which included Jibral Castle, some of Talta Village, Lago Village, and even some other civilizations from across the other side of the world that were home to other people and races. Others, such as Talta, had minimal damage, and some like Pachess Town had no damage. But, surprising me the most, was Kelaso Village. Their town was now afloat in the ocean as the ice caps that held their town had been broken apart after the shattering of the center of the world. And right in the middle of their celebrations.

"I hear your plights, and I am willing to make an offer to everyone on the planet. When the world shattered in two, it stayed together, numerous different mini-planets emerging in the area in between the two halves of the planet. Most of these cubes are hospitable areas for everyone to live on and some even have housing pre-built on them. This is a diagram of what it looks like from space," I said as I then gave a visage of what the planet looked like from an outside view.

"We have the ability to travel to your different cities and towns in flying vehicles as one of these cubes is filled with them. If you want to have assistance to move to these center cubes for a place to call home, please tell me. Don't be shy now," I smiled, everyone on the planet having different opinions. Kelaso, Jibral, Lago, Talta, Alumaru, and even my hometown of Noluta all wanted to move to the inner cubes as well as Sahlia's voice agreeing. But the ones that didn't want to go were all the Sheep tribes, Pachess Town, and the people that lived on the other side of the world... except for one city on the other side of the world in particular. It was one called Poloka City, whose village had actually got giant holes in numerous spots in the city that had almost engulfed entire denizens and even some houses.

"Understood. I will respect the decisions of the ones who do not wish to move to the cubes. As for everyone else, our group will be to your towns and cities to help you move to a cube of your choosing," I said as I then stopped the visage and looked at my friends with a smile.

"Let's go ahead and get to the top of this place. I activated a warp device near the entrance to the ruins of this cube," I smiled at my allies.

"Okay, let's go," Shu smiled.

* * *

**Shu POV:**

The process of moving everyone that wanted to move to their different placements in the center cube worlds took a total of three days, but it was well worth it to see everyone's smiling faces when they saw their respective cubes and fell in love with them instantly. Anya's family decided to move to a cube that we called Neo Jibral Cube with all of the residents of Jibral Castle Town and Talta Village. The Servant Robots and Yasato decided to reside in a giant cube shaped like the head of a Servant Robot, hoping to await a new master. The Lago Village's Devee Tribe and Marumaro moved to the new Lago Cube and started to create a settlement in the canyons there. The Noluta Residents decided to nest in a colder cube that had wild animals that weren't monsters, all of them loving it as they did like the cold weather, just not being frozen in ice. The Gorgo Tribe moved to a cube next-door to Neo Jibral, which contained a vast forest, perfect for their lifestyle. And then we went to the whole other side of the planet to get the residents of Poloka City, who wanted to reside with the Kelaso residents in a cube that had what looked to be a large city on it. It was then that we learned that Kelaso and Poloka actually had a lore about why the Kelaso residents always wore tons of headgear on top of their heads. It was honestly a very cute story.

"Okay... that's all of the people that wanted to move moved. What do we do now?" I asked with a yawn, as I hadn't slept for at least 34 hours since we started to work.

"Well, something's coming up in a few days that I'd like to invite people to... what do you think, Shu?" Kluke smiled as she kissed me on the nose, me blushing as Anya smirked at me.

"No one would forget your birthday, Kluke! Who wants to join? We'll have it at Neo Castle Jibral in three days," I smiled.

"I'll join," Anya smiled widely.

"Same here," Jiro smirked.

"If there's a party, we're joining in too," Sahlia smiled as she was standing with our group along with Anya's family.

"What about you, Kesu?" Anya smiled at her robotic companion.

"Apologies, but Zola, Jibral, Marumaro and I cannot come. We're currently trying to rebuild Szabo so he can have both a free will and have a kindness to him," Kesu said with seriousness.

"You're going to rebuild Szabo?" Kluke asked.

"Well, it was Anya's idea. Zola was the one that made a secret plan with Szabo to help out in defeating Nene, as she removed his loyalty chip before she let him live long enough to help out in defeating Nene," Kesu said as she helped Anya's mom get up after putting the finishing touches on a new mode of transport for her. She now had a lower body that was similar to Kesu's in that it could float endlessly so long as she had kept her eyes open until she closed them for 10 seconds... apparently Nene wasn't the only one good at programming machinery, as Anya assisted in the programming of the levitation device.

"Don't worry, Kesu. We'll be sure to send you some electricity to juice yourself up after the party is done," Anya smiled at her.

"Make it 2 thousand watts and we've got a deal," Kesu chuckled.


	30. Ch29: One Year of Peace Until Disaster

**Shu POV:**

Kluke's party was amazing and she loved the flower that I got her, as it smelled like oranges, one of her favorites. Sahlia got her a gift in the form of her birthday cake, which she baked all herself for the occasion. It was filled with chocolate and vanilla swirls, creme icing, and had specially crafted flowers and leaves on it made out of dyed batter. Even Kluke was a bit surprised at Sahlia's gift and everyone was in agreement that it was the best thing they'd ever tasted. Anya's gift was something else, however. Something that she said was extremely precious to her that she gave Kluke. It was a book that she looked at with confusion before Anya smiled.

"This is my gift to you, Kluke. My most cherished possession that helped me through the tough decade long containment on Nene's ship. It's my dream journal. It's only halfway filled, but you can look at my dreams of my life and you can add your own dreams in there that you can hold onto forever," Anya smiled at Kluke, my girlfriend sniffling and hugging Anya afterwards.

"Thank you, Anya... this is a great gift," Kluke smiled.

"I wanted to give you something special... after all, we're best friends," Anya smiled.

"Yeah... best friends forever," Kluke smiled happily with some happy sobs.

"Damn... that gift is way better than mine," I said to myself softly, making sure it was soft enough that no one could hear it... Anya smiled at me, but I simply held my finger to my mouth so she wouldn't blab what I said. She smirked and winked at me afterwards, her not mentioning it at all.

...

A whole year then passed us by after the events with Nene and it seemed that everything had returned to its peaceful state. Szabo had been given a second chance of life by Zola and Jibral, him having some of his memory remain, but having some deleted at the same time while giving him a robotic soul. Once he was given it, Anya then tried to give Szabo a shadow, similar to what she gave Kesu after she had lived with us for a few months. Kesu's was that of a large whale and her magic was mostly magical... but Szabo couldn't get it for some odd reason.

"Damn... sorry, Szabo... I guess your soul isn't compatible to use magic with," Anya sighed with a frown outside at the lookout of Neo Jibral Castle, as we had been calling it since it had been inhabited by us for awhile.

"It is quite fine, Mistress Anya," Szabo said with his sternness as always... but then Anya gasped as she looked out the balcony and I wondered what she was hearing.

"Something is happening to the Engine Cube in the distance... can you see it?" Anya gawked as I looked out and I gasped as I saw it. There was a large cube that looked like an Eternal Engine falling into a recess into the bottom portion of the planet. And once it connected, we all gasped as a gigantic, 5-headed, purple-colored Balaur shadow emerged from it and the monstrous shadow roared so loud that we could feel a loud gust of wind before it disappeared back into the cube!

"Oh my god... the almighty Balaur shadow... we need to go to that cube and destroy it by any means necessary!" Anya said with fear in her voice.

"On a scale of one to one hundred, what's the danger verdict of this shadow?" Zola asked.

"On one to one hundred? One million," Anya said, me wondering if she was being cute.

"Are you being serious or sarcastic?" Szabo asked.

"Dead serious. Nene's old records in the Primitive Cube said that the Balaur Shadow is 100 times more powerful than Nene's Red Chimera shadow. And Nene actually required some effort to knock back with his shadow against ours, keep in mind. It took all six of our group to get on even ground with his Red Chimera until Mystic found an opening to smash his hand. This shadow is one hundred times stronger than the strongest Ancient in existence, so we need to go there with all of our might to defeat the shadow's owner... but before that, we need some kind of scouting team to see what we're going to be up against when we go there," Anya said.

"I'll go," Zola said.

"So will Maro!" Marumaro said as he appeared from around the corner.

"Always near Zola no matter what, I see," I smiled at him.

"In that case, I'll tag along and Szabo will, too," Anya smiled, Szabo doing his salute at Anya.

"I'm coming with too. Should we get permission from King Jibral?" I asked.

"No need. I saw it from here," Jibral's voice said from above us, him looking up from a much higher balcony.

"Okay then, let's proceed with a Mechat to go to the Engine Cube," Anya smiled.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

Upon arrival to the cube, our group got out and began our expedition, only for us to get jumped by a bunch of Mecha Robos!... But the thing that shocked all of us at the same time? They had Purple Dragon shadows! All of them!

"Impossible! How can every single one of these Mecha Robos have these shadows?! It's only supposed to apply to specialized robot souls and only for those with more work put into design! Mass-produced robots shouldn't be compatible!" I gawked at the sight while we began to take them out.

"We must destroy them before they get the idea to get to the other civilizations," Szabo said as we took out the last of them... but then something big and loud appeared.

"What was that noise?" Maro asked. We then got our answer as a gigantic robot wielding a long sword burst from the ground, creating a large hole and me sensing something on the robot's back. It was a self-destruct sac. One with roughly a thousand pounds of dynamite!

"SHIT! We need to demolish this robot! He's packing half a ton of dynamite in that large bomb on his back!" I exclaimed, all of the others gasping when I said what it was.

"A bomb?! We need to destroy it! Take this!" Shu yelled as he tried to attack it, but gasped when the armor seemed to be tougher than we could do anything to... for Shu at least.

"Leave it to me, Shu," I smiled as I then focused my power and slammed the robot directly in the chest with a super-powered punch from Mystic Mermaid, the blow managing to demolish the robot's outer shell and smacking him right into a wall, his eyes going blank once I did so.

"Very impressive, Mistress Anya," Szabo said.

"I've demolished monsters made of stronger metal than that creep. We should just be grateful that he won't be getting up again... let's go through this hole... I sense some kind of energy down there," I said, our group going into it and landing in a large, square-shaped arena that I could sense unease in. "Hmm... it's quiet... too qui-... AH! I sense something... rrrggh..." I growled lowly as I felt something that I thought I'd never feel again.

"What is it, Anya?" Marumaro asked. I rushed forward with the others following me and we eventually found what I was talking about.

"Is that a light sphere?" Shu asked.

"Zola! I thought you said this was in the ocean!" I yelled at her, Zola gasping when she heard that.

"I-I did throw it deep into the ocean! It was around the area of Jibral Castle, right by the Tsunami Vortex's last known location," Zola said.

"Damn it... then that means that it fell into this area when the world split in half. Castle Jibral was directly at the equator, after all," I grumbled... but then I gasped as I heard some skittering.

"At arms... I hear something..." I said, me looking around for the source before I looked up. And when I did, I narrowly dodged a blade going into my body from a robot I thought we'd never see again.

"ACK!" I exclaimed as I narrowly dodged it and the faces then appeared before us. "All of them?! But I can sense they aren't the same ones we saw before, especially Kesu. Look at those eyes. They're all red as sin!" I said with fear, all of the robots looking at me with a growl.

"Target sighted," Silent Kesu said.

"Unidentified intruders detected as enemies," Mai said.

"Initiating Battle Mechanics," the fake Kesu said.

"Commence battle," Heat Wave Sai said, all of their voices being completely monotone. It was as if they had no character at all anymore other than being machines of destruction!

"Let's take these thugs out!" Shu said as he, Marumaro, Zola, and I let out our shadows and Szabo pulled out his pistol and began to shoot at the robots along with us.

"Szabo. You are siding with humans now?!" the fake Kesu asked.

"Stop this madness! I have no memory of evil! I am loyal to the ones who saved me!" Szabo growled.

"You know what must happen," Ku said.

"We must..." Mai frowned.

"Become one..." Kesu said.

"AGAIN!" Sai yelled as they all then singled out Szabo from our group and then attacked Szabo and I gasped horribly as they almost immediately combined their bodies to Szabo's! Szabo looked at us in shock as he tried to fight the group that had got him turned.

"Szabo!" I gasped.

"Please! Save me! I do not wish to be used for evil again!" Szabo exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Szabo, we're going to free you!" I exclaimed as I then tried to connect a blow to the middle body of Ku and managed to do a bit of hurt to it, but then Szabo spoke again.

"Please... destroy me!" Szabo exclaimed... but then, before any of us could say anything, something happened.

"Silence!" All of the robot generals said at once as the fake Kesu then stabbed Szabo right in the chest and tore out his soul! After they did this, Szabo stopped moving... and then his eyes turned bright red.

"NOOO!" I yelled in shock and sadness as he then grabbed Nene's Killer Bat soul with no emotion.

"Now, the one true king will have his power once more," Szabo said, my Eternal Engine starting to smoke as I felt my spirit get hurt, the smoke visibly coming out once Szabo fled via teleporting.

"Anya! You're smoking!" Zola gasped at me.

"It only comes out when I feel incredibly sick... he said the one true king... he... I KILLED HIM! HE SHOULD BE DEAD!" I exclaimed angrily as I had to open my chest cavity to let the smoke out and cool my Eternal Engine.

"Nene?! He's still alive?! We need to go after him, then! Tell me, where do you sense he went?" Shu exclaimed.

"Rgm... I sense he's just in the next room... I sense... HIM too. Let's hurry," I said as we then rushed over to the exit to the next room as fast as we could. And when we arrived, we gasped at how we saw that Szabo and the four generals had found a very weakened Nene as he stepped out of a containment machine looking as old and aged as he did before.

"M... M... RGGGGHHH! NNNNEEENNNEE!" I exclaimed, me snapping as I finally felt something happen in my brain. Finally, after a whole year of willing myself, I had finally defeated the code to call him Master Nene. And just in time too, as I then tried to rush him quickly. Nene smiled as he then swallowed the Killer Bat spirit and I gasped as he immediately got his youth back and he created a pretty tough barrier around him that soaked up my attack.

"Dammit! Even with one part of five souls, your magic is still impressive... but how the fuck did you bring yourself back to life after I fired a bullet through your brain?!" I growled at Nene angrily, him laughing at me.

"You really think that such a blow would finish me off, Anya?" he said, my eyebrows being raised when he didn't call me by my model name. "I simply cast my own spell, which resurrected me in this containment unit to heal my wounds. The exact same one that I had awoken from all those years ago! But I must ask, where has my beloved Deathroy gone off to?" Nene asked.

"Oh, don't you know? He wasn't called Deathroy. He was actually named Destroy. Ring any bells?" I asked him, Nene gasping as he suddenly held his head while my allies attacked Szabo, the giant mech trying to attack me, but failing to do damage.

"You mean... all this time, I was keeping hold of the killer of all the Ancients?!" Nene hissed.

"That you were. Your memory was so bad, you couldn't even remember the true identity of the monster that killed everyone you ruled. As for what we have discovered, on the other hand... remember when you said that you and Himiko were the last known Ancients?" I smiled, Zola looking at me with a smile.

"What are you implying? Are you going to demonize Himiko once more?!" Nene scowled angrily.

"Oh no, I wouldn't do that. It's obvious you two cared for each other... in fact, we actually met at least 10 different Ancient families that had survived the war and were on the different cubes. And unlike you, they were quite content with sharing their presence with humans," I frowned at him, Nene gasping at that and looking at me with confusion.

"Are you being truthful?... You cannot fool me with your lies!" Nene growled.

"Apologies, Nene, but remember those codes that failed on me? All of them failed but one. I just got rid of the program to call you master... and the only one left is that I am forced to always tell the truth. My allies can vouch for me on that one," I smiled.

"Yeah! Anya told Zola that Jibral had a crush on her just yesterday!" Marumaro said, Zola stiffening at that.

"And she told me that you liked to read bedtime stories to Deathroy before going to sleep," Shu smiled, Nene gasping as he then frowned.

"So... you do speak the truth... if so, then tell me, Anya. What are the names of these Ancients and what is their story?" Nene asked.

"Now, why would I tell you that? If I did, there's a very good chance you'd want them to be swallowed by a man-eating tree. Maybe freeze them in place with ice... or maybe flood their entire existence of the face of the earth! Do any of those fucking instances ring any bells in that fat purple head?" I growled at him, Nene glaring at me before we then heard a voice out of bloody nowhere. It sounded unlike any voice I had heard before.

"You are still inferior..." the voice said, Nene gasping at that.

"W-Who dares?!" he growled before I saw something come out from the machine from behind him. Not thinking, I gasped as I then felt my body move unintentionally. "NENE LOOK OUT!" I exclaimed, my body trying to grab him before it was too late... but it was. Three large claws emerged from the machine and latched themselves to Nene's backside, holding him up and me sensing that they weren't actually hurting him, but copying images and experiences from his mind... I could feel the electricity in his brain being copied into the cords in his spine. But then I gasped as I saw that all of my friends had been trapped in between two giant pipes that were attacking them with noxious electricity!

"Ack! We need to retreat! Now! You guys won't be able to use magic for a few hours after touching that stuff! I'm sorry, we have to warp out of here now!" I exclaimed, me looking at the group and focusing their energies to the warp station I'd activated at the start of the cube. And once we escaped, we couldn't help but feel that something extremely bad was going to happen soon... very soon...


	31. Ch30: Venture Back to the Engine Cube

**Shu POV:**

We reported our findings back to Jibral after we had discovered everything in the Engine Cube. He was understandably upset at how we had lost Szabo and the fact that Nene was revived from the dead, but Anya looked extremely troubled, more so than usual.

"Is something wrong, Anya?" I asked her during our talk with Jibral.

"It's just... when Nene was about to get attacked by those cords coming from the capsule... why did my body try to save him?... Why did my mouth say I wanted to rescue him?... Is there... another code inside of me?... To protect Nene from incoming threats?... And if there is, then why hasn't it activated until now?... I'm so fucking confused..." Anya said as she placed her hands on her eyes and sighed as we then got joined by all of our other friends that could use shadows and a couple others.

"Sura-Sura? Guru-Guru? Toripo and Shifa? What are you all doing here with the others?" I asked them. Sura-Sura and Guru-Guru were actually members of the Gorgo Tribe that had usurped the corrupt Jeelala after he tried to frame Guru-Guru with stealing the Gem of Jibral and shattering it. To make a long story short, Jibral found the jewel inside Jeelala's storeroom and handed his butt to him in combat before arresting him and saving Guru-Guru from exile. They were two Gorgo members that insisted on moving to Neo Jibral Castle's inhabitable areas after we had given their tribe refuge.

Shifa, on the other hand, was someone I knew for a long time. She was a young girl that had lived with us in Talta Village before the events with the Land Shark happened. Her puppy, sadly, was killed during the Land Shark attack of the century by Nene, which is when she discovered she had her own shadow. Anya called it the Steel Sphynx, which was obvious as it was a cat that had a robotic look to it.

"We heard from Marumaro that this cube is going to be trouble, so we wanted to join you in taking it out," Shifa said with a smile.

"After all, we can't let Nene come back to life without a bit of a fight! He ruined the Aurora Ruins! I spent my whole life looking for them, and once I found them, he snapped the world in two and the ruins crumbled!" Toripo said as he then let out his shadow and Anya smiled.

"Well, looks like you've gotten improved from Simple Scorpion to Sticky Arachnae. You must have quite the spirit to have more than one shadow on you, Toripo," Anya smiled at him.

"Hehe, I actually discovered this second, more powerful form of my Simple Scorpion after seeing the ruins crumble to bits. I was so filled with fury, it just came out from my sheer anger and distress," Toripo said.

"And as for us, we have also developed shadows. We wanted to have an opportunity to show them off, and I guess now is the perfect time," Guru-Guru smiled as he and Sura-Sura then let their shadows out for us to see. Guru-Guru's was that of a cyclops and Sura-Sura's was that of a Harpie. Part Phoenix, part human, and the beauty of both.

"Impressive," I smiled as Marumaro then gave Anya something.

"Look at this," he said as he handed me a small device... it looked to be an advanced radar of the Engine Cube.

"What are all of these red dots... you don't think that... there are more of those walking dynamite machines?" she asked.

"Dynamite? You mean robots that self-destruct? How powerful is the blast?" Kluke asked.

"According to Anya, roughly a thousand pounds of dynamite in each robot..." I said, Anya gasping as the radar started to beep rapidly.

"O-Oh no... that one we defeated at the surface! It's coming here!" Anya exclaimed. And not two seconds later, we gasped as the big boy smashed through the roof of the throne room and he looked pissed at all of us.

"Round two?" Zola smiled.

"Let's attack this freak together! We cannot allow it to use that bomb! Try to chop it off if you can so I can disarm it!" Anya exclaimed.

"You got it, Anya!" Kesu said as she activated her arm blades as she let out her shadow, which Anya had dubbed the Frigid Leviathan, which specialized in high sturdiness and precision in ice-based attacks. "Let's take out this creep!" Kesu exclaimed as she then flew forward and attempted to slice out the bomb from the robot's body, our surprise very plain as day when she managed to do just that in one single slice! And once the bomb fell off the robot, we were even more surprised when the giant mechanical menace stopped moving and the bomb disengaged.

"Nice job, Kesu!" Sahlia smiled widely.

"Yeah! Way to go!" Marumira smirked afterwards... but then Anya looked at the radar with a frown.

"Guys... some of these dots are slowly moving up the radar... I think that the smaller ones are regular Mecha Robos and the larger ones are bomb robots. We need to go back to that cube with all of our strengths and find out how to stop them before it's too late. We may have stopped this robot, but these bombs would be powerful enough to demolish an entire cube, let alone a city!" Anya stated with a serious tone.

"Don't worry. We're going to join you. All of us," Marutora said with a smile.

"Okay then. Since there are so many of us, I'd say we take a Land Shark to get to the cube. It can fit all of us and more on it," Jiro said. And he was right. The Land Shark, though a killing machine when under Nene's control, was actually a flying machine that was also in the Hangar Cube in abundance.

"Let's move out effective immediately! No time to waste standing around, we've got a cube to take out and a powerful sorcerer to stop once again!" Kluke smiled.

"Yeah! The Devee Dance of Excitement!" Marumaro smiled.

* * *

**Anya POV:**

Our group immediately proceeded towards the cube and I noticed that the hole we had used earlier to get in had been sealed up indefinitely. "This cube must have a mind of its own or the robot patched it up before he crashed into the castle... we'll need to find another way of entry..." I said as I thought and looked at the radar. No other possible entryways. "Peh, well, like my father always said, if there isn't an entrance, just make one yourself! Hyah!" I smiled as I then slammed the fin of the Land Shark into the side of the top of the cube, making a hole large enough for us to enter.

"Are you crazy, Anya?! We could've gotten hurt badly!" Jiro exclaimed at me.

"Sorry, hon, but we need to get down there quickly before those bombs reach the surface. And from the radar, this room is connected to all of the exits at the top of the cube. So long as we can stop them in this room or deeper, we can prevent any bomb robots from escaping and destroying the world," I said to him.

"Okay... sorry for snapping," Jiro said.

"It's quite alright. Should've given you guys a head's up," I smiled bashfully as I then looked at the radar with a smile.

"Okay, according to this radar, we need to proceed down this hallway here in order to go deeper into the cube. All the other gates will lead to the rooms to the surface... I can sense Nene is deeper in the cube, so let's be cautious," I said as we proceeded forward, having no issues with any kind of enemies until we got a floor below us. When we did so, we came across some regular Mecha Robos, a few spare monsters, and found that the path diverged to the north and west.

"Let's take out these enemies and then decide how to split our teams. We'll need two teams to proceed onward, one for each path," Shifa said, taking charge for a change as we then proceeded to pummel all the enemies into oblivion. We managed to clear out all of them within only a few minutes.

"Okay, we'll need two teams to move onward in the two directions... I feel that Shu and Zola should be the ones to choose who will go with them," I said.

"Understood," Zola said. After deciding the order of teams, Zola had picked Marumaro, Fushira, Guru-Guru, Sura-Sura, Marumira, Marutora, and Toripo. Meanwhile, Shu chose Kluke, Jibral, myself, Sahlia, Jiro, Kesu, and Shifa.

"Okay, we have our teams. Let's split up. We'll go to the northern exit, you guys can proceed through the western exit," Shu said.

"Agreed. Let's move out," Zola said.

"Hold it... before we separate, Zola, you take this. It's a special warp device that will warp you back to the top floor if you get into a fight you can't win. That, and it will allow you to talk with our group whenever you come across anything interesting," I said to her.

"Smart thinking, Anya. Okay, good luck, guys," Zola smiled as she took the warp device communicator and we then proceeded to the different passages to the lower levels.


	32. Ch31: More Destroys and Himiko Appears

**Anya POV:**

Once our group separated, I saw that we had entered a room that had some artistry on the walls and that some of them looked familiar to me. "Hey, these look like the Mural people of Mural Town. Remember, Shu?" I smiled at him.

"Yeah, that's right... can they talk?" Shu asked as we looked at them and then they started to move.

"Indeed we can talk. It has been far too long since anyone has ventured here. Tell me, where do you come from?" the one mural asked while he also had a child mural next to him.

"We come from outside of this cube from the physical planet. We moved to Neo Jibral Castle after the world was ravaged by a madman who wanted to rule the world. He was an ancient named Nene. Do you happen to know anything?" I asked them.

"Nene? I don't remember anyone of that name... do you know if he happened to be of the royal family?" the kid mural asked.

"Not only that, but the king of all Ancients... but enough about that, we're trying to defend the outside world from evil robots that have powerful bombs. If they escape this place, it will be catastrophic," I said to them.

"It is sad to imagine that the tools of the ancients are being used for such evil. And you say that this Nene was the ruler of all ancients?... If that's the case, then I must share something with you. This is the Royal Tomb, where some Ancients decided to go into a frozen slumber. This Nene may have been one that didn't wish to reside in these chambers, but there may be others deeper within. All you must do is defeat the evil monster that is cursing the different murals further down the hall," the father mural said.

"More Ancients? And you say a monster is corrupting other murals? Still your fear, we'll annihilate this monster. What does he look like, by chance?" Jibral asked.

"You can't miss it. It's a mural that is designed after the ultimate bio-genetic warrior. It was said to have been the downfall of the Ancients long ago," the one mural said, me looking at it in confusion before I gasped.

"It must be a mural that looks like Destroy, then! We must be careful and try to stay out of its line of sight when we attack it, guys. Destroy on his own is one thing, but a mural version somehow sounds worse," Jiro said.

"Sounds scary... I'll be brave though," Shifa said as our group proceeded down the hall and we saw the mural in question from far off. It was a giant, flat version of Destroy and it was off of the walls and in a central arena, with different ghosts patrolling the area around him.

"Take out the ghosts first, and make sure you don't step in front of the Destroy Mural. I have a bad feeling about what would happen if we got in its line of fire from the front. Try to attack the backside," I said to everyone.

"Don't worry, we can take anything that giant palooka has to throw at us," Kesu smirked as we flew forward and defeated the ghosts with our shadows, making sure to stay out of the line of sight of the Destroy Mural. And once we handled the ghosts, we got behind Destroy and started to pelt his backside with water attacks. But Shu wasn't very bright and got in the line of fire from Destroy's attack. And when he did, Shu gasped as he held onto his side, me seeing that his right side was extremely burnt from the attack as I delivered the final blow to the mural, it disintegrating soon afterwards.

"Shu, I told you not to go in front of it," I frowned at him as Jiro then went to work on healing him with a pulse of Healus.

"Sorry, I just thought it was a bit crowded in the back and I wanted to face him head-on," Shu said as he then stopped holding his side.

"Well, your best shirt got horribly charred in the process and you almost died. So now you can take the back line for awhile as punishment," Sahlia said, Kluke smirking at that.

"A bit harsh, don't you think?" Jibral asked.

"I'm in agreement with Sahlia. Until we find Nene again, Shu is staying in the back lines," Kluke smiled.

"Dangit," Shu groaned, all of us having a secret agreement when we had joined together. Due to Shifa's young, impressionable age, none of us were to engage in curse words. We then proceeded through the hallway and into the next room, me seeing something in the center and looking at it with intrigue.

"That looks like a suspended sleep capsule. Similar to what Nene had, except this one seems to be operational and doesn't look evil... do we dare?" I asked.

"I'd dare," Sahlia smiled as we proceeded forward and approached the capsule, me looking inside of it and looking at the face with shock. I didn't know if it was my memory playing tricks on me, but this girl looked strikingly similar to a female ancient I'd seen before.

"Hmm..." I frowned as I pushed a button and the machine popped open, the woman inside waking up and emerging from it before standing on the ground with her own two feet.

"Um... hello there, miss... how'd you sleep?" I smiled at her, smacking my head for saying something that stupid, which she giggled at. "Anyways... what's your name?" I asked her. And then she said the name that made me realize that we finally had a leg-up on Nene.

"...Himiko..." the woman said with a kind smile, everyone looking at her in shock who had been with me during the Himiko confrontations with Nene.

"Do you recall anything? Particularly about the name Nene?" I asked her some more... but then she sighed and looked at the ground.

"Mm... I can't remember a thing... only my name... I apologize," she said with a sad smile.

"That's alright. Not everything can come back at once. Give it time, I'm sure that it'll come back eventually," Shifa smiled as Himiko looked at her with a smile.

"Mm..." she hummed kindly at her.

"Would you like to come with us, Himiko? We're trying to find out the reason why this cube is producing bomb robots and trying to prevent them from escaping. We can protect you with our large group," I smiled at her.

"Thank you... I would like that..." Himiko smiled as she then walked down the steps and towards the northern end to a large gate. She then closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, humming a bit as I sensed a small bit of magic leave her body and forced the gate to open.

"Did you remember something just now?" Shu asked.

"Yes... I remember that this door leads further down... but that is all I recall for now..." Himiko said with a small smile.

"Okay, we'll proceed with caution. You should stay in the middle of our group so you don't get lost," I said to her.

"I thank you..." she said kindly, her voice having just as soothing a nature as Mystic Mermaid.

* * *

**Zola POV:**

When we proceeded into the area to the west, we didn't expect what we were going to find. But after proceeding down the hall a bit, we eventually happened upon an area that looked like a scientific research facility with multiple different stasis capsules in the room. And what did we happen to see in the capsules? Let's just say that our group was in shock at what we saw. "I-Impossible..." I gawked as Marumaro looked surprised as well. And as for his siblings, they were scared because of the stories we'd told them.

"It's a whole bunch of Destroys! But how?! I thought you said there was only one!" Marumira gasped audibly.

"We thought there was only one... but he did say he was a bio-genetic warrior. Maybe they made clones of him in case the first model couldn't succeed?" Toripo suggested when he saw the faces of them.

"They seem to all be supported by these strange tubes. But I don't know what'd happen if we just started to cut them. It might wake them up and that would be the worst thing we could do at this point... for now they seem to be sleeping, so, as a wise man once said, let sleeping dogs lie. Or in this case, a bunch of disgusting green monsters," Guru-Guru said.

"Right! Let's move out," Marumaro smiled, taking charge as we ran through the hall and found another way downwards. And when we did so, we couldn't help but feel a bit of unease in the air.

"I sure hope those monsters don't wake up. We don't need anymore of that thing running around if just one was able to kill the Ancients," Fushira said.

"Agreed. Let's proceed with caution in case we happen to find anymore monsters," I said with a serious tone. After seeing what we just saw, I needed to give Anya a call on the communicator.

"Anya? Do you read me?" I asked into it.

"Yes, I read you, Zola. What's your status?" Anya asked me in the communicator.

"Well, we passed a lab that has at least 6 different containment units all containing clones of a certain frog monster that we had to kill in the Primitive Cube... all of them were dormant, but it is something to mention," I said to her.

"More Destroys? Damn, that is not good news. Well, our status is that we had to defeat a Destroy-shaped Mural with power great enough to burn Shu extremely bad. He got patched up, but his clothes are singed badly... but other than that, we happened to find someone that can assist us in the fight against Nene," Anya smiled.

"Is it an Ancient?" I asked her.

"Not just an Ancient. It's Himiko," Anya said, all of our group stopping in place when we heard that name.

"Himiko?! You actually found her?! Does she know anything at all?!" I asked her in shock and surprise. It was very rare for me to get surprised, so this was something new.

"Unfortunately, she seems to have experienced memory loss. Nene said to me once that extreme frozen sleep has side effects. Nene didn't remember who he was at first until he saw Deathroy sealed with him. I'm sure that, with the right kind of push, Himiko will remember everything in due time... just have to worry about what Nene might do if he sees that we have Himiko in our party," Anya said.

"Well, if he is truthful in his words that he loves Himiko, he won't hurt you if you have Himiko sheltered. He may actually be persuaded to our side even, though it is highly unlikely given his disease," Zola said.

"But that's not all. While we were traveling down the hall after waking her up, we happened upon a special robotic soul that we could use on Szabo if we find him again! Isn't that great?" Shu smirked into the device out of nowhere.

"Shu, we told you. Back of the line," Kluke frowned.

"Rgh... fine," Shu groaned, me smiling at that.

"We'll let you know if we happen to encounter anything else important, Anya. Over and out," I said to her.

"Later," she smiled back.


	33. Ch32: Nene's Tearful Reunion

**Heads up, because this chapter introduces some new OCs. When they appear, their names will be in bold.  
Okay, b****ack to the story now!**

* * *

**Anya POV:**

Our group proceeded with Himiko further down and eventually made it to another set of ancient ruins, where I saw that it had tombs instead of stasis capsules. "Hmm... there's a whole lot of tombs here, but where could Nene be?" Shu asked. But I could feel it. His energy was closing in on us.

"I can feel his energy nearby, guys. He's closing in on our location. For now, I think we should just wait here and see if he shows," I said to them.

"B-But Nene is scary..." Shifa said with a sad face.

"I know, but it may be our one chance to finally make him realize his wrongs. If he does have any kindness in his heart at all, it's gotta be for Himiko. If he doesn't have anything but hate in his heart, then I shall do the dirty and destroy him," I said. Himiko simply stayed silent, mostly because she was still fuzzy on details and she didn't remember a thing. But then, I finally felt Nene's presence within meters of us. I looked behind me and saw a large warp sphere, Nene appearing out of it with a sneer on his face when he saw us.

"I've finally found you! Now I can finally have my reve... wait... there are a lot more of you than before," Nene frowned when he saw us. Shifa hid behind me with fear in her eyes when Nene spoke, me holding her hand while she hugged my legs.

"See what you do, Nene? You're making Shifa scared," I frowned at him, Nene frowning at my statement.

"All I want is to finally put an end to you, Anya," Nene growled at me.

"Now why would you want to do that when we've found the one true person you feel kindness for?" Kluke asked, Nene looking at her with a frown.

"What are you implying?" he asked.

"Brace yourself for the surprise of your life," I frowned as I moved myself and Shifa out of the way and revealed someone to Nene. And when he saw her, he gasped audibly.

"H-Himiko..! W-What is Himiko doing with you?" he asked in absolute shock. But I could sense it in him. He wasn't mad. He was joyful on the inside.

"We found her stasis capsule in the room above this one. By the way, you're welcome... monster," Shu frowned, obviously not liking being put in the back lines, but having to put up with it. But I could sense that he felt animosity towards Nene.

"My Himiko!" Nene exclaimed as he rushed to her location and she looked at him with a look of surprise. "Himiko... It is I, Nene," he said with a warmth in his voice I had never EVER heard before.

"N... Nene?... I feel I know you... but... oh, I can't remember..." Himiko frowned in frustration as she tried to rack her brain for info that she couldn't come up with. Nene's warm smile turned to one of extreme worry when she said those words.

"I-It can't be... your memory..." Nene gawked as his face turned into the saddest of frowns he'd ever put on before.

"She woke up with a very fuzzy memory. She only remembers her name and that's it, much like you were when you woke up from frozen sleep," I frowned at him.

"Though your memory fails you, I have never forgotten the promise I made you..." Nene said as he did something I never would've expected him to do. He coughed up his Light Sphere of the Killer Bat and infused it into Himiko's body. "Come, we need to press on until your memory recovers," Nene said, but I simply stood in his way before he could move out.

"Before you do that, I have some questions I want to ask you," I frowned at him.

"Again with the questions?" he frowned, but he didn't growl.

"Three. First off, do you have any idea what this cube is?  
Second, do you happen to know why there is an entire laboratory in this cube that holds tons of Destroys in stasis capsules?  
And third, what do you know about the robots in this cube having shadows on them?" I asked him thrice.

"Hmph. The second and third questions I know absolutely nothing about. But the first question I can answer. This cube was created as a factory for war machines and was programmed to have a mind of its own. Even I do not fully know everything that this cube has inside of it," Nene frowned.

"Did you know that this cube produced a giant Balaur shadow just yesterday?" Shu asked, Nene gasping when he heard that.

"The... Balaur shadow? That must mean..." Nene gawked as I wanted to know more... but then he clutched his head in pain.

"Agh!" Nene exclaimed, something happening to my body once again as I felt it move to Nene and try to grab hold of him. "What are you doing?" he asked me, which I couldn't even answer myself.

"I have no idea why my body is doing this. After what you've done to us, after all the lives you've ruined over these past years, helping you is the last thing I or any of my friends want to do for you. But when I see some kind of danger you're experiencing, my body immediately tries to help you, and I have no inkling as to why," I frowned at him.

Nene frowned and knelt down after swatting my hand away, Himiko leaning over and helping him up. "Heh... now's your chance, you fools... you could end me right now as I stand," Nene said with a frown as I actually saw tears fall from his eyes.

"How can we?... Defeating someone while they're powerless... why would we want to end you when you can't even fight back?" Shu gawked, Kluke and Sahlia looking at him with concern in their eyes.

"Shu..." Sahlia said with a hiccup in her voice. It was then that Himiko had helped Nene forward and the duo just hobbled out of the room and to the eastern exit, just as a bunch of robots appeared out of nowhere.

"I know that it's not right, but we have to defeat these robots to help them out... at least for now," Jiro said with a frown.

"Let the battle commence!" Kesu exclaimed as she summoned her knife wrists and we began to attack the robots one by one.

* * *

**Zola POV:**

Our group eventually found an area underneath where we were before and we looked around with confusion. There were numerous areas that had water in them and were being guarded by robots. And when we saw what was in the traps, I finally understood what was powering the Destroys. "Help! Help us!" exclaimed a lowly Poo Snake that was trapped in one of the puddles of water, me seeing that it looked to be draining their energy.

"I see... the Destroys need the energy of others to grow. If we can free the Poo Snakes, then we may be able to kill the Destroys while they're still in stasis and prevent them from waking up!" I smiled.

"Great thinking, except that there seems to be a timer going right as we speak," Fushira frowned.

"Then we'll need to be quick in freeing them. Let's go," I said as we then proceeded to attack the robots that were guarding the Poo Snake cages, our speed and strength proving to be superior to the robots as we freed the Poo Snakes individually, one by one, until all of them had been freed... but we also noticed that some of the Poo Snakes had been freed by someone else.

"Who helped us in freeing the Poo Snakes?" Marumaro asked.

"That would be us," said a voice from nearby that I smiled at.

"So, it appears we have some unexpected stowaways in that Land Shark, huh?" I smiled when I turned around and saw them. A duo of Ancients that we had met when we were renovating Neo Castle Jibral, as they had resided there as well. One of them was named **Okuni** and she happened to be an adept user of healing magic with a fairy as her shadow. And the other was a male Ancient named **Korin** and he was a great user of attack magic. His shadow was that of a beast called the Wendigo, which Anya described as the ultimate nightmare creature. Which made sense, as the Wendigo shadow had access to some exclusively-powerful magic such as Nightmarus, Genocidus, and Extractus. All of these spells would kill any kind of monster that made contact with it, but they never ever affected those with more intelligence. Which I guess is why it didn't kill the talking Poo Snakes or us when Korin accidentally loosed a spell on us when we caught him off guard in the bathroom of all places when we first met him.

"Sorry about that, but we needed to help you out in stopping this cube. Anya's dad also joined us, but we got separated when we accidentally activated a trap door," Okuni said as the Poo Snakes looked at us with a smile.

"We thank you for saving us! We will now form into one so we can assist you as repayment!" the Poo Snakes smiled as they then clumped all together into a single Poo Snake, their smell being a bit bad, but nothing that would cause anyone to puke.

"You see something new everyday, I guess," Guru-Guru smiled.

"We can help out! We can use a shadow just like you!" the Poo Snake smiled as he then let out a large shadow that looked like a Poo Dragon almost.

"Wow! That looks like a pretty strong shadow! You're in the club!" Marutora smiled.

"Alright, introductions are out of the way, so let's continue. We need to give Anya a call anywa-" I was about to say until I got a call from Anya herself.

"Zola... how are ya?" she asked me, though I could tell she was a bit hesitant.

"Well, we just stopped the Destroys from waking up by freeing some Poo Snakes that were being harvested for them to remain alive... and Okuni and Korin are with us. They sneaked onto the Land Shark without our knowledge with your dad, but he got separated when they fell through a trap," I said.

"Daddy's here?... Well, I'm sure we'll find him... but I have something to tell you..." Anya sighed.

"Is it something that has to do with Nene?" I asked her.

"Well... yes... Nene, when he saw Himiko, gave her his light sphere to help her regain her memory... but something's been bothering me... anytime that Nene is in a state of weakness or danger, my body moves without me wanting it to and I try to help him... I tried to warn him of the cords before they latched onto his body during our first trip here, and then my body forced me to help Nene up when he'd fallen down from giving his energy to Himiko... I think that I may have another code in me that forces me to assist Nene... and it's only taking effect now..." Anya groaned.

"Well, don't worry about it too much. I'm sure that you'll find a way to fight it," Sura-Sura smiled into the communicator.

"I don't think it'd be that easy... we're going to try and go deeper now, see you soon," Anya said.

"Okay, so long," I said as we cut the connection and I frowned.

"What's wrong, Lady Zola?" Marumaro asked me.

"Nothing... it's just... that's the first time I've ever heard Anya sound depressed. You could hear it in her voice. She was filled with deep depression. I've never heard her in that state before," I admitted.

"Listen, if that girl could break apart a gigantic monster's hand when she was ant-sized compared to him, I'm sure she can pull this off," Guru-Guru smiled.

"Yeah, maybe," I said as we then proceeded deeper into the cube through a southern staircase.


	34. Ch33: Nene, Himiko, and Servant Robots

**Anya POV:**

"You okay, Anya?" Shu asked me as he had been allowed back to the front lines after we let Nene escape with Himiko, having to take out the robots in the process. I sighed in response and shook my head.

"Why... Why am I trying to help that monster?" I sighed with tears in my eyes. "He hurt all of us... he destroyed entire cities in his madness. I can't even blame the disease because he did the most horrific act when he was back at full power and without disease... SO WHY DOES MY BODY HELP THAT ASSHOLE?!" I exclaimed angrily as I shot some bullets as we proceeded forward, us emerging into an area that had some more robots, me seeing that we were in some kind of hotter area than before.

"I think this may be some kind of furnace area. Wait... I see Nene up there!" Jibral exclaimed when he saw Nene at the very top of what looked to be some kind of pyramid made of machinery and pipes. And I sensed Himiko's essence near him. But Nene's essence? It was incredibly low.

"Time to go to them. Anyone wish to get up there quicker, or should we take out the enemies on the way?" I asked my allies.

"We'll take out the enemies before going there," Jibral said as we then rushed forward to the furnace and I began to let my fingers start firing, minus my ring finger. I still kept my promise. Not a single shot would be fired from it ever again. I killed a bunch of robots with the bullets I used, as Mystic Mermaid had helped by buffing me with her magic to make the bullets much stronger. We managed to defeat quite a lot of robots, around 30, before we finally reached Nene and Himiko, her blocking our progress to Nene.

"Stay back, please," she said with seriousness in her voice.

"Do you have any idea as to what this madman has done, Himiko?! He deserves nothing but the worst!" Shu exclaimed at her.

"I apologize, but you must blame the disease... and I apologize if he did anything to you," Himiko said as she then did something I didn't expect. She produced the ultimate healing shadow. The Moonlight Asura, a four-armed goddess with two swords in the top hands and holding two ancient staves in the bottom hands.

"Himiko, apologies, but I cannot even begin to explain what Nene has done to us humans! He killed 30 people from Shu's village, tried to poison the Devee village by polluting their fountain with a poisonous flower! He forced floods to torture a city once a year, he encased a city in a barrier that no one could escape from, he froze all of my Noluta villagers in ice, even making my mother incapable of walking ever again, forced a tree to eat entire people in a village, INCLUDING MY AUNT AND UNCLE, tore apart entire cities when he split the world in two, and look what the fuck he did to my body!" I exclaimed at her as I then took my head off and she gasped.

"M-My... My Nene... he did all of that?... For how long has he been doing this?" Himiko asked in shock.

"For over 10 fucking years. He was only stopped after we tried to defeat him in battle, but even though I shot a bullet through his brain, he resurrected himself in this cube! And he split the world and tried to say that if we refused to accept him as his ruler, he'd have our world experience unending natural disasters by his hands! If it wasn't for me helping some humans gain their inner magic, the world would've ceased to exist!" I growled angrily.

"I apologize... I never knew... just know that I still must protect him... I love him..." Himiko said, me growling at that and about to point my fingers at her before Jiro put my hand down without haste.

"Don't, Anya! She's not the one to blame! Besides, Nene isn't the threat we face right now. The threat we face as of right now is the Balaur Shadow that came from this cube," Kluke exclaimed at me, Himiko gasping again at that information.

"T-The Balaur shadow?... Oh my god... then that means... this cube... it was the Ultimate Ancient Factory," Himiko gawked, me wondering what she meant by that... but then something from behind her made me gasp. It was a large claw! And I already knew what it was from.

"NO!" I exclaimed as the claw grabbed hold of Nene's limp body and Himiko gasped from behind her. It was Szabo and the other robot generals. And they grabbed hold of Nene and began to walk off.

"Let him go right now!" Himiko exclaimed as she tried to give chase, but she fell down a trapdoor and down to a lower level!

"HIMIKO! Okay, now we need to split up! We need a team to go after Himiko and we need another to go after Nene and Szabo!" I said with seriousness.

"I'll split off here to go after Himiko. I'll bring along Kluke, Sahlia, and Shifa to go after Himiko," Jibral said.

"Good luck, Jibral, we'll move on from here. Besides, I'm detecting more bomb robots ahead where Nene was taken," I said with a sigh as we went forward, the others following me... and before I took another step, I heard a voice from behind me.

"Wait a minute! I'm goin' with ya, hon!" I heard my father exclaim as he literally fell down on my back from the ceiling.

"Ow... well, good to see ya finally joined up, pops. Zola said you stowed away, though I didn't expect you to fall from the ceiling... agh... let's just go on," I groaned as dad got off my back and we continued forward.

"And next time, Anya, think before you point," Kesu frowned at me.

"Fine... I let my anger get in my way again," I groaned as we pushed on. And I knew I had to give Zola a call.

* * *

**Zola POV:**

When I finally got a call from Anya, our group had already made it to the next room and we had gained a new ally we hadn't expected. Apparently Yasato and the other Servant Robots fled to the cube after the disappearance of their underground home thanks to Nene. But when they entered, they found they couldn't leave and Yasato had come across a special item that he called a Soul Engine. And what did it produce from him? A Pegasus shadow! He had magic like Kesu did, despite being robots!

"Zola? You read me?" Anya asked when she called me.

"Yeah, I read you, Anya. Guess what? The servant robots from the underground city? All of them and Yasato are here in this room we just finished and Yasato has something on him that'll be useful in the future," I smiled at her.

"Really? What would that be?" Anya asked.

"A Soul Engine is what he called it and it gave him the shadow of a Pegasus," Fushira said to her.

"A Pegasus?! Then that can only mean he obtained the Pricey Pegasus, which has spells exclusive to buffing items before usage! Make sure he stocks up on items and uses those spells to up their power, because that's the best way to maximize his shadow's power," Anya smiled at me.

"Understood," I said to her. "And what's your status?"

"Well... see, Himiko tried to defend Nene, and when we told her of the Balaur Shadow, she claimed that this cube was called the Ultimate Ancient Factory... what that means, I don't know, but she didn't have time to explain because Szabo kidnapped Nene and Himiko fell down a trap hole. Jibral has a separate team going after her, so we're a few men short chasing after Nene," Anya sighed.

"I see... did she sound surprised when she heard of Nene's evil?" I asked her.

"She did. But she still said she loves him... how can she care so much for someone so evil?" Anya frowned.

"Don't think about it too much. Besides, like you said, he had a disease that ate away at his sanity. He's not the same person he was when she was with him in the past," Sura-Sura said with her calm voice.

"Yeah... I guess you're right, Sura-Sura... fine. Next I see him and he's in danger, I'll help him... but if he so much as even attempts to attack me or my friends, we won't help him anymore, got it?" Anya frowned at me.

"Of course," I said to her.


End file.
